Ceramic, packing belt, palette, six digital text prints, chain and steel rods. (Marble figure, Ruth, Giovanni Cincessli 1880).
The Kibble Palace, Glasgow Botanic Gardens, 2014
Ruth was centred around an existing public sculpture within The Kibble Palace in Glasgow. The biblical figure of Ruth became a gleaner after being widowed. The first legal case when gleaning was outlawed in the UK (Steel V Houghton in 1788) was turned into large scale printed texts forming a backdrop for the figure of Ruth and distribution pallets, packing belts and static ceramic forms were laid before the figure.
The work focused on a moment where something which was common became privatised and brought into close proximity the idealised sculpture of Ruth and our current cultural, political and social treatment of those who rely on free food. The work considered the role that art has historically played in the representation and public of consumption of narratives and images of poverty.
Excerpt from transcript Steel v Houghton 1788;
No person has, at common law, a right to glean in the harvest field. Neither have the poor of a parish legally settled (as such) any such right.
Full court transcript available here.
