‘I also spend a lot of time looking into ponds’ – Five Minutes With Ruby Tingle

PAPER Artist Ruby Tingle tells us more about her work – which revels in a glorious, swamp-like aesthetic – and what she’s been up to during Lockdown.

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1.) What artist has most influenced your practice and why?

Probably Rebecca Horn. I discovered her when I was a teenager and it was sort of my introduction to performance art. I realised I could use myself and others in my work and change the body in these surreal and limitless ways. She’s someone I always go back to and get that magical feeling when I see her work in the flesh.

2.) What is your relationship to paper as a creative material? What draws you to it?

As a surface to work on, paper has so many different textural qualities. It has a kind of softness and holds a space of its own without needing to be filled. But also, even though I cut from lots of different materials, like fabrics and plastics, fragments of a page still have this delicate charm that I feel the need to collect. 

3.) Have you been making any art during Lockdown? If so, can you tell us a bit about what you're working on?

I've managed to have quite a productive time so far. I've written a new EP of music, learned to play ukulele, and made lots of new works. These circular ones are small experiments at the moment for larger works. I'm researching Palissy ware – decorative ceramic dishes with cast reptiles and amphibians all over them – so, the spherical nature comes from this and also the three-dimensional fragments of animal moving through the work. 

4.) What are you reading/watching/listening to atm?

Reading: Bloom (2019) by Ruth Kassinger & catching up on back issues of Fortean Times

*Bloom, is all about algae: their complex natural history, how they are farmed as food, and how they could be used as fuel. It's quite interesting, I find science/nature writing good sources of inspiration for my practice, but I also spend a lot of time looking into ponds for amphibians, so algae are something I come into contact with fairly regularly. Thought I should learn a bit more about it!

Watching: David Stratton’s Stories of Australian Cinema on BBC iPlayer & Swamp Thing (DC Universe)

Listening: Fever Ray, Dave Van Ronk, & Tsinder Ash

5.) If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you choose?

I'm desperate to go back to Australia. I went for the first time the other year and it was kind of a taster holiday, so I want to go back and explore more of it! I’m torn at the moment between there and an America trip, flipping logs for salamanders! We'll see what I decide when we can all travel again. 

What to know more about Ruby’s work? Read a full-length interview with the artist, back in 2016, here.

Ruby Tingle is a Manchester-based artist and musician, represented by PAPER Gallery. Her work expands collage across paper, performance, sound, and installation; rooted within the concept of an unnatural history, particularly focusing on herpetology. She has exhibited recently at Saatchi Gallery, HOME Manchester, 48HNK Berlin, and The Manchester Contemporary, and performed at Chetham’s Library, The Manchester Museum and Glastonbury Festival.