Orchestral Chaos

Listening closely to Ruti de Vries's works, one can hear the music emanating from them. Like a big sigh coming from the bottom of the diaphragm and connecting the internal passages of the body with external cover, like the lining of a garment embracing the human belly, de Vries's textile works connect deep feelings with the outer shell, with garments and materials. Patterns repeated in a recursive fashion, like arithmetic sequences, emerge from what appears like a blend of colors and shapes, dictating a rhythm. Groups of figures—a couple (duet), a group of four (string quartet), and a sextet (the six cymbals), are sewn into each other and lean on one another, until they become a musical instrument of sorts: the sounding board hangs above them, the pieces of fabric become strings. In the series of orchestra paintings, the number of singing figures in each painting increases: from an individual to a duet, from a trio to a quartet, all the way to a choir of thirty. The voices intertwine, generating a visual canon, which evolves from one figure to the next to form a joint work. De Vries explores the inner voice and the aesthetic dynamics of sound. She follows the logic of the body's resonant movement, and by dividing and duplicating forms, she tries to synchronize and regulate the jumble of voices. The three figures who make up the curtain at the entrance to the gallery also confront the tension between order and chaos, between liberation and control. One side of the curtain is laden with hinges and handles, locks and bolts. Its other side suggests that we look at the absence as well. The load of contours produced by de Vries is also made from the void surrounding it and filling anew every time; from the heretofore hidden patterns surrounding us and their potential space. For de Vries, clothes are not only a protection and a buffer from the outside world; they are also an array of signs and symbols, a way to communicate with the universe—to present feelings, mark boundaries, create order. Layers upon layers of weaves and buckles, zippers and paintings, myths and legends come together to form ensembles of figures extending over monumental canvases. Fashion is not only a social dictate for them, but also a statement which allows individuals to set themselves apart from the group and rejoin it.