Rosebud
Through his mobile-home work titled “Rosebud,” Rontherin Ratliff uses the process of deconstructing and reassembling a shotgun house to engage us to see and reimagine how our structures take up space. With a video that threads footage of multiple artists working in a 24-hour period, Rosebud invites us to contemplate our spacial needs and possibilities in tune with our creative professions and crafts. How might we reimagine our workspaces individually and collectively?
Exercise Steps:
Materials: Blank sheet of paper, Camera (the one that might be on your phone is fine), 2 colors of the medium of your choice (pencil, marker, etc)
First, identify a room, space, or area in or outside your home that serves as a workspace for your art practice, craft, or hobby. Take a photo of this space as it is in its current state.
After taking the photo, sit with the picture and with one of your pencils (or chosen media), sketch the lines that emerge from the most prominent lines and edges that you observe in the photo of your workspace.
Study these lines that you’ve and the shape or shapes that emerge. What might this express about your work space, your work, and your body in this space at work?
With the second color of your chosen medium, replicate the original lines that you sketched, but draw the new lines differently. Try making some lines longer or smaller, add curves, improvise. Imagine this as a transformation of your space.
When finished, use your drawing and refer to the real life perspective of your space. The one that you photographed. How might the process of your drawing inform and inspire potential changes to your workspace that could enhance your experience in the space?
A Clip from the visit:
ABOUT RONTHERIN:
Rontherin Ratliff was born in New Orleans where he currently lives and works. He is a self-taught artist whose work explores the relationship between aspects of architecture as analogous to the characteristics of the human conditions. He is a member of Antenna and LEVEL Artist Collective in New Orleans. Recent exhibition venues include the Elsewhere Museum (Greensboro, NC), Art Route 2017 (Groningen, NL), Xavier University Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University (New Orleans, LA), Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Deering Estate (Miami, FL), Governor’s Island, (New York,NY), 516 ARTS (Albuquerque, NM), Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery (Worcester, MA), University Galleries, FAU (Boca Raton, FL) and The Ford Foundation Gallery (New York,NY).
Rontherin will be a participating artist in the exhibition Living Room which will run in our 2021 exhibition season AND in a two-person show with Rondell Crier in the Fall of 2021.