Ruth Chambers

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Ruth Chambers, “Looking at Hollyhocks, et alia,” 2018-2021

porcelain with painted stainless-steel supports, approx. 24 pieces wall mounted in a line, size varies (photo by Trevor Hopkins)

Outside the exhibition Tend, a selection of botanical ceramics by Regina artist Ruth Chambers, a sign warns visitors to be mindful of the extremely fragile work inside. In other words, we are asked to tend to the art with care, just as Chambers has done during the process of making each unglazed piece of hand-formed porcelain. 

Among her subjects in this show, on view at the Art Gallery of Regina until April 10, are tulip and crocus bulbs, as well as hollyhock stems. In various states of budding, blooming, wilting and drooping, they float weightlessly along the walls, casting delicate shadows.

Chambers, whose work grew out of a 2018 residency at the Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre in Denmark, models the hollyhocks from specimens in her garden, where the plants tenaciously propagate themselves. 

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Ruth Chambers, “Bulb, Unfolding: Close Observations on Making and Growing,” 2018-2021

porcelain, oak, plywood, foam core, felt and pins (three oak stands supporting arrangements of individual porcelain pieces, approx. 9-12 pieces per arrangement), each stand 26” x 33” x 40” (photo by Don Hall)

Despite the profusion of to-scale facsimiles of flowers and bulbs, the exhibition space feels nothing like a garden. It’s probably because Chambers, whose work has been shown across Canada and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ont., and the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago, has always acknowledged the interconnection between art and science. 

As in the tradition of still-life portraiture, the beauty of growth and decay is present in her work. But she prioritizes scientific observation and controlled attention to detail. 

Chambers replaces vibrant garden colours with muted pastel washes on the textured porcelain, furthering both the verisimilitude and sense of fragility. The entwined chaos of a flower bed is replaced by individual studies made gradually over time, stem by stem. 

Although care is not always prescribed to the repetitive labours of methodical documentation, the tenderness of those acts betrays itself in the ashy crinkles of aging petals and the gentle massing of tiny dangling roots.

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Ruth Chambers, “Bulb, Unfolding: Close Observations on Making and Growing,” 2018-2021

porcelain, oak, plywood, foam core, felt and pins (three oak stands supporting arrangements of individual porcelain pieces, approx. 9-12 pieces per arrangement), each stand 26” x 33” x 40” (photo by Don Hall)

As is the nature of methodical study, much can be learned about the life cycles of the plant varietals Chambers documents. But, more than that, the works create a strong impression of ongoing care. 

These botanical portraits, soft spectres of once-living plants, demand to be tended throughout the life cycles of their objecthood. One can picture each piece being modelled meticulously, then set gently in a makeshift bed to protect it in the kiln, before being transported and fussed over in the gallery. Here, in their moment of display, they inspire deliberation. ■  

Ruth Chambers: Tend at the Art Gallery of Regina from Feb. 5 to April 10, 2021.

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