Ruby Knight talks red wine and oil paint
By Eric Butler
I meet my friend Ruby Knight at her house in Brunswick. Of course, I bring wine, but then I remember she’s on a martini kick. The house is a 70s dream of sliding doors, wood panelling and orange countertops. We settle in the living room, her housemate’s cat playing at our feet. Ruby is glamorous yet relaxed – lipstick on the wine glass, paint on the hem of her vintage dress. If this was actually the 70s we would surely be smoking indoors, but she’s quit the habit and I prefer my vices in liquid form.
Ruby is an artist, a painter mostly, though she dabbles in soft sculpture. ‘Painting will probably always be my main thing, but I just kind of wanted to combine things I’ve done in the past into one object.’
‘I first got into soft sculpture after I saw the Mirka Mora exhibition in 2018. It's basically painting, but making it 3D. And it's soft. So it was an easy platform to leap to; painting on fabric and then just stuffing
it to make it more tactile.’ Ruby and I met years ago at a party and since then I’ve seen her work exhibited across Victoria, from my own living room to Castlemaine. Her art explores comfort, pleasure and hedonism through depictions of bodies in various settings and various states of undress.
‘I guess I'm just really interested in the body. Obviously, a certain type of body, if I keep drawing the same one … maybe it's a representation thing? Trying to draw something that I don't see other than in myself.’ I ask her if her work is about body positivity. ‘I don't know. It seems a bit naff. Not that [body positivity] is naff. I think it's really good. But it’s loaded for me … ’
This profile is an excerpt. To read the full article, pick up a copy of the October 2022 print version of Ellipses for free at either the RMIT Student Union in Building 8 on Swanston St or the lobby of Building 94 on Cardigan St.
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