Ruth Skinner

A contribution to In Media Res: Props and Media Materialism about the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII.

Based in London, Ontario, the Renal Community Photo Initiative is a collaboratively-driven interdisciplinary partnership between the Kidney Clinical Research Unit at the London Health Sciences Centre and the Department of Visual Arts at Western University. In this patient-centric interdisciplinary study, participants are invited to use one of five different camera systems to produce images of their lives on dialysis.

An exhibition organized with Dickson Bou for the Artlab Gallery at Western University in January, 2021. This Department show features works from nearly thirty faculty members, staff, and grad students from the Department of Visual Arts at Western (as well as their collaborators). We invited participants to speak to how they've been experiencing the last year, to explore and express how isolation has shifted focus, research, art practice, as well as our forms of connecting with one another. This link will take you to the virtual exhibition which features participant texts, documentation and video features.

A community-focused exhibition, poster and publication project that asked London, Ontario artists: "What do you want?" Initiated for the 2015 founding of Good Sport Gallery, and reprised with current residents for its 5th-year anniversary. Featuring anonymous texts and designs from community members, past and present Good Sport residents.

An essay for Blackwood Gallery's broadsheet, SDUK: Tilting (1), published in the early weeks of COVID-19. I write around a series of images of Eusapia Paladino's technique for freeing her own hand, made by spiritualist investigator Camille Flamarrion. Personal anecdotes and forensic "reading" of the images were written in a moment of collective pause and bewilderment—an attempt to consider crisis in a post-truth era. (external link)

A text co-written with artist Lili Huston-Herterich for her solo exhibition of the same name at Zalucky Contemporary (Toronto).

Collaborative design and editing as Edna Press with participating artists: photographs and photo spreads by Jeff Downer; writings by Justas Patkauskas. This project is a case of a photographer and a writer trying very hard not to talk to each other. It is the second Split Folio collaborative work published by Edna Press. (external link)

An accompanying text for artist Adam Revington's exhibition, Non-Music Life, Assorted Footage & Projects, at Main Street (Toronto). (external link)

Collaborative design and editing as Edna Press with participating artists: artwork by Sarah Munro; writing by Faith Patrick. Black Box is a creative visualization deck of 10 playing cards for all ages. This is the first Split Folio collaborative work published by Edna Press. (external link)

Curated for McIntosh Gallery (London, ON), "Anti-Profit" explores the histories and current trajectories of independent arts and literary publishing in London, Ontario.

A conversation-in-text with artist Aislinn Thomas about her video work, "MOUNTAINS USED TO BE UGLY." Commissioned for the London Ontario Media Arts Association's Broad Topics: A Matrilineage of Media series, in partnership with A Museum for Future Fossils. Thanks to Aislinn for creating this pdf document.

A gently destructive reminder against leaving your books unattended for too long. Sandpaper bookmark with embossing. (external link)

A reading event at Good Press (Glasgow) featuring artists Graeme Arnfield, Taylor Doyle, Rosie Roberts and Josh Thorpe. All four contributors were invited to read and respond to dog in swimming pool (Edna Press). Topics ranged across dogs, companionship, Marxism, arts economies, accessibility and emotional labour within artistic education, and publishing for communities.

"One Step Below," a short story by Kirsten Kurvink Palm of Gitche Sabe included in the band's 2019 limited edition 7", Weather Comes. Book design, with a cover illustration by Steven Lourenco and vinyl design by Alayna Hryclik. A collaboration between Out of Sound Records and Edna Press, in partnership with Grooves Records. (external link)

An artists' book featuring photography by Mike Jordan and texts by Kelly Jazvac, Kim Ondaatje, and Lena Suksi. Designed and edited by myself, and the first publication by Edna Press. (external link)

Exhibition text for "But, I'll Just Break Your Arm" at Good Sport Gallery, for artists Sofia Berger, Liam Creed, Olivia Mossuto, and Michael Thompson. Taking the form of a (fictionalized) overheard conversation between friends.

An ongoing postcard series that quotes from speculative and concrete conversations about what an artists' pension program could/should look like (or not). "Pension Program" hearkens back to activist-affectionate histories of mail art in Canada, as well as to London, Ontario as the originating home of Canadian Artists' Representation, now CARFAC. (external link)

Guest curated for the 50th Anniversary of the Department of Visual Arts at Western University. This Cohen Commons exhibition explores student works and convictions from the beginning of the Visual Arts Department to the present. The title excerpts a 1985 essay co-written by students Lesley Soden (Art History & Criticism) and Carolyn Vesely (Studio-Fine Art) to introduce their graduating show. Soden and Vesely continue: "The year's success was met through challenge," a sentiment echoed throughout five decades of collected experience and ephemera.

Forward for Forest City Gallery's Digest: Vol 2 - "What is Left? What is Right?". This publication accompanied an exhibition of the same name co-curated by Christina Battle and Jenna Faye Powell. It brought together work by 13 Canadian women artists spanning from 1895-2017, created in varying political, social, and economic climates. Some of the considerations illuminated in this exhibition included identity politics in relation to place/land, representation, feminism, and agency. (external link)

Catalogue design for Bad Sport, a collection of feminist writing and artworks released in conjunction with Elise Boudreau Graham's solo exhibition, If it Makes you Happy (It Can't Be That Bad), Good Sport Gallery. Curated by Genevieve Flavelle.

BOREDOM was an interdisciplinary graduate conference focusing on research, art-making and experience to engage the artistic and theoretical potentials and challenges of this peculiar concept. Organized in partnership with VASA, the London Ontario Media Arts Association, Artlab Gallery, McIntosh Gallery, Museum London, Western Arts & Humanities, and Western Social Science. (external link)

Reading Room was a temporary installation created in collaboration with critic/writer A. D. Coleman at The Petrified Forest Gallery (London, ON). It ran talks, activities, and exhibitions dedicated to generating dialogue around Coleman's concept of practical criticism. Participating artists included Dave Kemp, Gillian Dykeman, Brad Isaacs, Jenna Faye Powell, Mack Ludlow, and Patrick Mahon.

An arts-focused forum for the sharing of research, work, and ideas between Western University faculty, students, and the public. Participating artists included Patrick Mahon,, Mark Kasumovic, Jared Peters, Kelly Jazvac, Matthew Purvis, and Gabriella Solti. Thumbnail image from Mark Kasumovic.

Photo-based publications, 2011-2013.