Artist Ruth to cast cold eye on Arctic

By Dermot Keys

A Galway-based artist is set to go on the trip of a lifetime after being selected to join a crew of artists, scientist and architects who will travel around the Arctic Circle in a tall ship.

Ruth Le Gear will swap Corrandulla for the icy charms of the Arctic Circle when she takes part in the Arctic Circle Expedition from September 28 to October 15. The GMIT graduate in Art and Design has travelled to many countries with her work but this residency is one that she has been actively pursuing in recent years.

“It was a residency that I spotted a couple of years ago,” Ruth explained.  

“I applied for it twice already. This year I got it. It just seemed really interesting and exciting. I do quite a lot of residencies and this one was the Holy Grail for me.”

The stunning location is a major attraction but she is also looking forward to working with such a creative crew.

“It is also the idea of artists and scientists working in such a confined space but such a vast space as well.”

There will be no phones or internet to provide distractions and the spectacular setting is sure to provide plenty of inspiration for those on board the ship.

“I’m sure it will be such an inspiring, productive time. I’m just preparing my focus for up there now.”

The trip will be no holiday, with Ruth sharing a 12 cubic foot space with another person and all of their equipment. The icy conditions also pose a challenge.

“We have to wear six layers, I think it is, and then they give you a survival suit to wear over that. We are going on an old tall ship. It only crossed my mind recently whether there will be any heating! I’m guessing not.

“Our leader is Aaron O’Connor, a man with years of experience bringing artists together in unusual places to see what they might create, together and apart. He came up with the idea of a ship full of artists called The Arctic Circle, and after years of planning, the journey has begun.

“And he doesn’t want to confuse it with your average polar trip: ‘No one on this boat has come to see polar bears. It is completely different from a tourist cruise. Tourists are sheep. We are artists,’ he has told us,” says Ruth.

Ruth’s adventurous streak may well be in her genes. Her grandmother’s uncle, who lived at Nun’s Island in the city before joining the British army as an engineer, became a cartographer, engineer, explorer, writer and photographer and was a member of the Explorer’s Club in New York.

A lot of Ruth’s work focuses on water and she has often incorporated homeopathic processes, working on the principle that repeatedly diluting something can make its effects stronger.

“As an artist I am strongly attracted by the scientific method behind the investigation of physical phenomena, as well as the more intuitive process of understanding these phenomena including homeopathy.

These methodologies are polar opposites, but I feel that crucial connections are involved in perception and a unified experience is created from differences. I produce imagery in photography and video, illustrating the exploration of phenomena. My work is involved with the nature of trans-disciplinary practice-based research.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.