2023
Not-knot (to stain) 94 x 259cm
Not-knot (to spill) 90 x 244cm
Not-knot (to smudge) 93 x 347cm
Not-knot (to leak) 91 x 275cm
Not-knot (to drag) 92 x 280cm
Not-knot (to slide) 91 x 278cm

Series of 6 works on rice paper
various printing techniques and wood cut

The seemingly coherent form found in Ruscica’s earlier woodcuts has, in the new works, been decomposed and reassembled into a fragmentary weave: in addition to the engraved wood cut plates, other imprints on the paper include clothes, plants, electrical wires, straps and strings, all rendered in vibrant colours. Alongside trouser legs, sleeves and skirts, the printed shapes include the artist’s own body parts and face, their soft, hazy forms alternating with the precise imprints of seams, pleats and cuffs. The wood reliefs and the hybrid compositions made from joined shapes of paper echo the surrealist technique of the exquisite corpse, in which a figure is assembled through a playful, collective sequence of separate, individual drawings.
-Aleksandra Oilinki