Ruth LeGear
b. 1985, Ireland
My artistic practice revolves around water. It engages with how a drop of water has the capacity to hold the memory of a substance that has passed through it, almost as if it has been locked in an iceberg, from the sea to a teardrop. The investigation of this notion – water as a conductor of memory – has led to an interest in homeopathy. Intrigued by the emotional content of a tear, my present work involves the systematic collecting of tears from the public, making a remedy from the collected tears. Like a snowflake, each tear has its own unique fingerprint. Tears are transitional, releasing an emotion and bringing us from one state to another.
I potentised these tears I collected from myself and the public, and I placed this remedy in the 3,500 suspended tear-collecting vials which you lie beneath in the installation. These tears should fall upon you, as the vials are suspended upside down with no lids, but they do not. The liquid stays in the vials as if frozen, and will not fall upon you.
(Text: too early for vacation catalogue, 2008)
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