Ruoru Mou 牟若儒
Chinese artist Ruoru Mou, (known as Cathy to her Western friends) is a multi disciplinary artist based in London. Her work closely examines the ideology of everyday movements, exploring the contentious relationship between human figures and everyday objects.
Through using the repeated gestures of repairing, building, reconfiguring and repurposing found objects, Cathy explored anecdotal, sensory and personal experience – connecting her autobiographical story to a wider cultural, political and social meaning.
In her untitled work, referred to as ‘ongoing garden series,’ Cathy invites the audience to experience a performance lecture; visitors are invited to take the containers (boxes and cigarette cases collected whilst in Shanghai) from the imitation Japanese zen garden and unpack them. There are images and texts within the boxes: topography, river landscapes, gardeners and her Grandfather’s studies of fauna – all factors are connected by an accompanying speech exploring time, movement, placement and memory.
In summary the work acts as a contemplation method for the artist; a therapeutic method of consolidating and resolving her own artistic practice, forcing her to make connections between time, spatial practice and problematics of containment.
