Work
Contemporary Mobiles
Through kinetic sculpture I aim to create moments of pause, reflection and connection within the busy environments of our lives. A moment of escape. The mobile's meditative yet playful quality brings a sense of calm to the spaces within which they are hung.
We recognise that having a kinetic focal point calms our minds and helps us make sense of our surroundings and emotions, we all need that as humans.
Watching the waves roll up the beach, the flames in a campfire or the trees being moved by the breeze. These moments in nature bring us back to ourselves, to our physical being and offer a moment of pause. My work uses the same stimuli that we find in nature. Watching the movement of a mobile act as a restorative break for our mind allowing us to come back to the task at hand refreshed and reenergized.
Whistles Summer Windows
Whistles Summer Windows
Whistles Summer Windows
Whistles Summer Windows
Brand Collaborations
This is one of three projects I have created for Whistles alongside an all-store installation of mobiles and a site specific piece for their involvement with Art Basel during Hong Kong Art Week.
Textile work forms the roots of my creative journey so any chance to work with this medium is always exciting. This Summer Window installation was an all-store project across the UK and internationally for Whistles, a British fashion retailer. The idea was to create a light and airy feeling window installation that reflected the earthy tones of the summer photography campaign. We hand-dyed a lightweight muslin to create a soft, translucent fabric banner; bold appliqued shapes were printed in specific colourways and contrasted beautifully with the muslin.
Installations
The effect of being surrounded by something bigger than ourselves is such a visceral feeling, be it a expansive landscape or piece of artwork.
This work was created to celebrate the union of two wonderful people who trusted me to take their reference ideas and turn them into an undulating canopy of colour. Their friends and family sharing in a magical evening, united under a rainbow of 40,000 squares of paper spanning 22 meters.
From brief to concept, design and the making process, the intricacies of hanging the work and finally the on-site rigging of an installation - I love the challenge of creating larger scale work and it is my aim to find more opportunities to do so.
Relief Sculpture, Private Commission
Relief Sculpture, Private Commission
Relief Sculpture, Private Commission
Relief Sculpture, Private Commission
Private Commissions
This is a great example of the variety of projects I like working on. If art is about connection then creating something with and for a specific person or space brings me so much joy.
This was an open brief to create a larger scale artwork for a home setting. The work was to feature on the main wall and introduce a focal point of colour into the room. Using a relief technique and layering the shapes enabled me to incorporate a lighting element to the piece. I wanted to weave in some really personal details including the Pride rainbow spectrum and my clients initials in a carnival-esque font as a nod to the other artwork in the room and also evocative of good times.
A celebration of Life & Love.
Exhibitions
Ruth Mulvi X Claire Knill - DRIFT
In the making of this work specifically I wanted to explore the use of light and shadow.
I’m interested in the play between what is physically there and what is not - the colours cast through the transparent materials, the reflections of light and the changing composition of the shadows are as important as the solid materials in the mobiles. In the same way light can change our perception of the reality of this piece of work, so too can feelings, thoughts and memory change and shape the reality of our day to day experiences.
Here watching the shifting realities of light, shape and colour allow us to be present in the moment. This moment of pause allows us to find a truer connection to ourselves helping us to discern a clearer path through the internal and external influences in our lives.
