Brie Ruais with Traveling with the Wind, East, 130lbs (2024). Photo courtesy of Albertz Benda, New York.
Each of Brie Ruais’s clay sculptures weighs exactly 130 pounds–the same as the artist’s own body. Though that has been the basis of her practice for years, she’s become especially attuned to the connection between our bodies and the earth since relocating from Brooklyn to New Mexico. The state’s intense spring winds have become particularly inspirational, with Ruais donning a special multi-sleeved garment that catches the breeze like a weather vane. This guides her moments, for a new process she’s dubbed “Wind Work,” resulting in the windswept-looking sculptures Traveling with the Wind, East and Traveling with the Wind, West. The show also features a new video work, created in collaboration with poet Caitlin Lorraine Johnson.
