In her solo exhibition at the Museum of the Southwest, Lauren Ruiz explores themes and variations concerning interiority: subterranean interiors of the earth (oil, water, human and animal remains); interiors of religious systems (ritual, power, tradition); and interiors of the human body (mutation, decay, birth, violation). She investigates commonalities between these internal systems, their shared duration over time, and the external forces which act upon them – what is buried and kept, and what is mined, extracted, or taken.

 

Lauren Ruiz is a research based, multimedia artist interrogating ecological contamination, institutional authority, and bioethics through speculative-fiction-based installations, interactive performance, and digital works.

 

Her work calls attention to the direct effects of individual choices on the environment. She draws upon environmental data, science journals, climate fiction novels, and horror films to create interactive installations which situate viewers in recognizable institutional spaces.

 

This exhibition is the culmination of research performed both at the 2022 Santa Fe Art Institute Residency program and as an artist-in-residence at the Museum of the Southwest.

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Made possible in part by Texas Commission on the Arts.

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