Artist: Ruiz Stephinson
Exhibition title: AND AND AND
Venue: Pavillon de la Muette, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Date: April 29 – May 14, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Pavillon de la Muette
It bids patience. To instil a saccharine pop to hand gestures, remaking semiotic palm-to-palms into tactile encounter, touching with soft light. And what a signal to our devotion to modernity. Less as commerce, this is not neo-geo after all, but to the body electric clambering in caustic whimsy. It whispers rosy and sweet something’s to a questioning audience. That the fin-de-siècle Parisians would now revel in such illuminations is hardly far-fetched; at one point even the most sceptic of them (was it Céline? Cezanne? One of the C’s) would admit the light is somewhat comforting, its hum conditioned to calm, the light a monument always on the precipice of being switched off. No one is about to pull the plug quite yet.
But back to those early modernists: the hum-coloured lights must have threatened their palette, only to be absorbed by future generations as a new painterly style. It takes time to build such confidence in the new, even if its consecration then happens quickly. What a colourless painting. Someone reminds me that the hierarchy of the senses is dictated by history: surely the neon does not undo this? Surely the avant-garde would sympathise with this, even offer a hand in its making?
What a quiet gesture modernism was, what a small dream in the end.
– Sabrina Tarasoff
Ruiz Stephinson is a multi-disciplinary art duo based in Paris, composed of Coralie Ruiz (1980, France) and Anthony Stephinson (1978, United Kingdom). In tandem with their practice, they run the art space and publishing house Goswell Road in Paris.
Pavillon de la Muette was designed by the celebrated architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Louis XV in 1765 on the ruins of François Ier XVIth century royal castle. Gabriel also designed the Petit Trianon in Versailles, the royal Château de Compiègne, the Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux, the Place de la Concorde, the École militaire du Champ-de-Mars in Paris, and the royal opera of Versailles. Pavillon de la Muette is a prime example of neoclassical architecture in late XVIIIth century France, locally praised as Le Trianon de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, From The Tower Of Babel To The Endless Column (Hercules), 2017, Terracotta pots, plaster, paint., Dimensions (approx.) 25cm x 190cm each
Ruiz Stephinson, From The Tower Of Babel To The Endless Column (Hercules), 2017, Terracotta pots, plaster, paint., Dimensions (approx.) 25cm x 190cm each
Ruiz Stephinson, From The Tower Of Babel To The Endless Column (Hercules), 2017, Terracotta pots, plaster, paint., Dimensions (approx.) 25cm x 190cm each
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2014, Rose coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer., Dimensions (approx.) 86cm x 36cm
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2014, Rose coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer., Dimensions (approx.) 58cm x 86cm
Ruiz Stephinson, From The Tower Of Babel To The Endless Column (Hercules), 2017, Terracotta pots, plaster, paint., Dimensions (approx.) 25cm x 190cm each
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2016, Rose coloured & champagne coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer., Dimensions (approx.) 68cm x 125cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2017, Rose coloured & clear argon neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer., Dimensions (approx.) 75cm x 118cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2017, Rose coloured & clear argon neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer., Dimensions (approx.) 75cm x 118cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2017, Rose coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer, Dimensions (approx.) 50cm x 80cm
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2017, Rose coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer, Dimensions (approx.) 50cm x 80cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2017, Rose coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer, Dimensions (approx.) 55cm x 98cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled, 2017, Rose coloured neon tubing, transparent plexiglas with variable 20MA electrical transfomer, Dimensions (approx.) 68cm x 95cm
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, AND AND AND, 2017, installation view, Pavillon de la Muette
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled (Neon Technical Drawing), 2017, Archival ink on tracing papers, double glass hand finished pine frame, Dimensions 80cm x 60cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled (Neon Technical Drawing), 2017, Archival ink on tracing papers, double glass hand finished pine frame, Dimensions 40cm x 50cm
Ruiz Stephinson, Untitled (Neon Technical Drawing), 2017, Archival ink on tracing papers, double glass hand finished pine frame, Dimensions 50cm x 40cm
