Difficult Objects
Ruudu Ulas
Nominated by
ISSP
2024
“Difficult Objects” (2021-ongoing) explores the intersection of the tangible and the psychological through a series of photographic works. Each piece navigates the space between the familiar and the unknown, prompting reflection of our personal relationships to the ubiquitous public and private structures. “Difficult Objects” sets out to draft how urban territories and domestic spheres collide and merge, leaving oddly shaped gaps where imagination attempts to interpret the connections.
The theme of ambiguity and scale is constant, challenging viewers and myself to rethink relational bonds between objects and experiences. The colours flowing through the work evoke emotional spaces, ripe for filling with hopes and dreams, yet these can just as easily become a stage for fears and anxieties. The work stems from the difficulty in articulating these guttural observations in words so with this project I stage a perceptual narrative where the images are tasked with being the guide.
Works like “Background” (2019) and “Glasgow/Untitled” (2018) ground the work in materiality and major events while staged scenes in the triptych “Difficult Objects”, “RGB” (2020) and “Awkward Object” (2021) map out the experiential and personal.
The project also features "Pigeon-Loop" (2020), a collaboration with magician Luis Carr, depicting a janitor's ceaseless attempts to catch a pigeon. Ultimately, the only viable way out of the situation is acceptance and recognising that other species have as much right to space as we do.
"Difficult Objects" blends the real with the felt, urging us to consider our place within the spaces we share.
The Artist
Ruudu Ulas
Nominated in
2024
By
ISSP
Lives and Works in
Tallinn
Ruudu Ulas (b 1987, Estonia) is a visual artist who lives and works between Berlin, Tallinn and Berlin. Her practice includes photography, object-making and performative actions. Ulas’ work focuses on the dynamics between the individual and the environment, highlighting the tensions and glitches that emerge from the interjection of public and personal spaces. Working within the expanded field of photography, Ulas’ work is often site specific and takes the form of large scale room installations.Ulas completed her MA studies in Photography from Royal College of Art in 2021. She holds a First Class BA(Hons) in Fine Art Photography from Glasgow School of Art and she also studied under Joachim Brohm at HGB Leipzig in 2016/2017. She has participated in exhibitions in the UK as well as internationally and she has been a visiting lecturer at Glasgow School of Art. She has received the Adamson Eric Stipend (2019), Ene Grauberg Foundation Grant (2019) as well as Metro Imaging Mentorship Award (2021). In 2023 she was selected as one of The Photographer’s Gallery New Talent artists.
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