Biography

Ruth Simons works in Oxford and is Open Access Printmaking Resident, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell. She has just completed a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University, having previously studied Metallurgy, Economics and Management at The University of Oxford and this interest in science and materials underpins her research. Her practice investigates the convergence between contemporary art and the biological sciences. Themes of adaption, immigration and colonisation, climate change and vanity are explored through the media of print, drawing, book works and installation. Recent exhibitions include: Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012; BITE: Artists Making Prints; and Natural Histories, Eagle Gallery, London.

Poster Presentation

In the Eye of the Beholder: The Rose Grape – Friend or Foe?
A case study of the Rose Grape Medinilla magnifica in natural and artificial environments, and man’s relationship and response.  Taking the contradictions of the plant as a metaphor for human behaviour, Kapa-Kapa explores migration, invasion, and cultural erosion.

Presented as an artist’s book in the form of a wallpaper sample book, Kapa-Kapa considers the plant from the perspectives of the horticultural trade, scientific botanic journals, and Victorian plant hunters, and as a threatened endemic and an alien invasive.  The narrative spans the archipelagos of Britain, the Philippines, and Hawaii, referencing their flags, designs, political and cultural histories, reflecting patterns of colonisation and occupation.