Ruby Law - Freelance Sculpture, Installation and Illustration Artist from UAL Chelsea College AlumniRuby Law is a creator of things. A very much hands on sculptor, artist, illustrator and much more. Her journey is quite fascinating. Ruby’s practice and work revolves around the modern ideologies and the dynamics between human, technology and the environment. She challenges international art mindsets, cultures and stories through her work and flips them 180 degrees. As much as she wants to illustrate her grandparents’ stories for her nephews and turn them into a book she is also fighting for Hong Kong’s public art displays too. In Kowloon Chinese Park we sat down, surrounded by around 20 sculpture works of various artists and reflected on Ruby’s journey as an artist and the current situation in Hong Kong’s restrictions. I absolutely fell in love with your “PINK” piece sculpture. I can't quite put my hands on it but there is something about it - that this is such an obvious piece that people just need to see! Have you had a chance to showcase this somewhere officially? Oh it was actually back in the uni when I had a chance to exhibit it. I made it in my studio and couldn't really ship it so had to dismantle it completely in a garage. I don't really feel like it actually has to be shown, really. Even though I took plenty of photos I actually enjoyed the fact that I really loved the process of making it without actually officially showing it off anywhere. That’s the true artists right there! Where did you get the idea from? It's referencing this original Greek kissing sculpture but I’ve renamed it to “Adultery”. It’s a sculpture of two people who are so close and almost kissing. So I was trying to portray it as they are doing the act of adultery, but not quite yet. My piece is more about two found objects. So the idea found me when I was actually moving quite a lot during that time and I was surrounded by a lot of stuff and clutter. I wanted to use something that is more spontaneous - to create something. I actually really hated how cluttered our house is because of my dad - he has this garage full of things that remind him of me and my sister’s childhood. He never throws anything away and always keeps those things. And this sculpture I created portrayed him and the need to hoard and keep the stuff with our emotions and the old memories - being strong enough to let them go. It's creative to actually use the old things as clutter to create an art piece! When we come back into your childhood you are born and raised in Hong Kong and moved to Ireland, UK… Yes - it’s actually really common for Hongkongers to move abroad for their education. I used to go to the same school as my sister but they were trying to push their syllabus so much in order to reach Hong Kong’s certain ranking that it wasn't for me anymore. The education programme was so severe and so harsh that they made us do homework of 12 books every day! It just ended up me and my mum - arguing and fighting all the time. So we wanted to get a balance where I could get a proper education to her standards and to my happiness in school life. That was the reason why I actually went to the international school instead. And when my sister went abroad I followed in her footsteps to go abroad as well. But this time I decided to go to Ireland to finish my GCSEs and my A-levels and then moved to London after that to start my uni. Is this where your interest in Art began? I think I liked art when I was younger. I really loved comics, japanese manga. I really loved looking into my sister’s stuff and she also loved comic books too. At the end I turned into this massive comic geek/ fan. I think that’s where I got my art interest right away. I always tried to make a piece of art every day. And I loved watching all of the animated manga and anime as well. How did it shift into you making sculptures? I really liked drawing - but up to my A-levels I am traditionally trained in painting, using different tools and canvases, techniques that you have to follow. But I think the most exciting journey that I followed was when I went to Foundation. This is where I had to proactively choose the area in which you really want to focus on. So in the art foundation, there are about 12 areas that you can choose from like drawing, fine art, digital design, product design, graphics, illustration, photography…and I was torn between fine art and illustration, because I liked both. The main difference between these two is that during illustration, you have a brief that you need to follow and then you dedicate your plan to - when the teacher tells you to focus on orange you need to come up with an idea how to set the motion to it. But in fine art you can have purely your own mind and philosophy to your idea and the explanation behind it - why you wanted to do this piece. That’s when I chose basically to work with free stuff that I found or started picking up on. Fine arts gives you the option to work with anything, really. I’m curious about your working process - do you first have an idea or an inspiration or do you see the object first and you try to evolve the idea of it? First, I see an image that I want to make and then sometimes I create a concept about it afterwards. But other times I tend to get inspiration when I’m writing or zoning out. There is a lot of ideas coming in. I don't like doing the research or specifically planning how it's going to be. I prefer to choose to think about the aesthetic that I have in mind or why do I want to do this and think about it afterwards. So I kinda work backwards, really. That’s so interesting - your mindset is almost like a comic book that you also read backwards, haha! Where do you pick your inspiration most from - front the things that you are familiar with or do you usually look at something brand new like materials? I tend to gravitate towards things that I can touch with my hands and fingers. I need to be able to touch things. And for the actual idea I’m very much aesthetically driven so I tend to read a lot of picture books, magazines, combine them - or of course go to the internet - I love Pinterest so much! I keep being on Pinterest a lot. I find a lot of inspiration there. But it has always been comics and movies. What is your favorite comic book right now? Right now - from the top of my head, there is this comics called Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. It’s a gut wrenching story about the protagonist who is trying to save his sister from becoming a demon and he’s trying to basically eliminate all of the demons out of the world to save the human kind. But it’s also about the love for family - as it was massacred because of the rise of the very first demon who appeared in the world. That makes sense - as you mentioned your sister a couple of times - are you also family driven as well? Yeaah! I actually really like my sister - you know I’ve always been that little sister who was always following her behind and doing everything she did. But she's very much a lady, I’m exactly the opposite. I’m more of like the handyman kinda girl at home - so whatever is broken at home I fix it. But a lot of stuff originates from me thinking about my sister’s kids - as she has 4 children now. So I always want to make something for them or something that relates to my parents as well. Do you think that you - moving to so many social bubbles and places have left you with some insights for your work as well? Did some of these aspects influence your work? As you mentioned before the interview, Northern Ireland was quite a hard place for you to be in… I mean the people there were all very lovely. The bullying that I’ve experienced was actually from the Hong Kong expats ironically. The local students and teachers were really nice, but I do definitely pick it up - all the things I've seen when I was travelling. As I went to the UAL in Chelsea, the programme is almost like an exchange course as well - for that one year we had to go abroad so I went to Kyoto. I went there for my sculpture learning journey. In Kyoto it’s all very different, especially in comparison to Hong Kong and England. No lecturers were able to communicate properly with us. When we were trying to make our art pieces it was very difficult and interesting at the same time to see how culture affects the way how art is created. It definitely felt like that us as exchange students were in a bubble that was treated differently, even maybe more nicely. But when I was learning to make the sculptures, their approach in Japan was more to participate in a graphics studio and then try to do whatever or design studio and observe them there… What was your first piece that you created when you were in Kyoto? So my dormitory was behind a mountain - behind the actual university I went to. And everyday in order to get from my accommodation to university I had to walk through the mountain to get to the uni. And on my way to school I was always surrounded by these big massive trees and I would just pick up tree bucks along the way to school. And then I just made a piece called “Soldiers”. I put them in an almost T shape. So in Chinese (人) the character means human - which was the exact position of the tree bucks as well. And it’s exactly the same writing in Japanese. I love the double meaning of it - it’s like “fond human” (laughs). How different is the art mindset from Hong Kong to Japanese and English? For the most easy access or mentality wise its definitely the UK - embracing the creative mind. Because in uni we are trained not for the skill but how we think that's how we are being taught. And Asian countries train basically on how to be an artist - it's basically a measurement of how well you can draw, paint and access the colour, how do you analyse the historical piece and how can I put it into a practice. The major difference between the West and East would be the process of what you learn is thinking and the skill. In the West they think that they can train your mind and your skill can come afterwards but in Asia it is the other way around. So I think that I enjoy the western method of teaching more, then Asian. But if you're trying to get a job in Hong Kong - it is much easier because you have immediate skills. But for the western world it is harder to get a job when you come back out into society and try to apply your thinking into the workforce. That’s what I was wondering as it feels like Hong Kong is much more accessible and open to entrepreneurship and people do a lot of “gigs” as freelancers. Was it easier for you to come back to HK as an artist and get all of these jobs too? For sure. I felt very lost in England. I didn't know where to start, didn't know what to do, I didn't make any connections in particular. Your teachers do not really advise you what to do next, it's more of a “don't worry you find your own way” kinda mindset. But in Hong Kong as I don't really have any education that is originally from here, I think the mentality of the art in Hong Kong is quite young actually. Art history in Hong Kong is still much younger than in China. They have like decades and decades of traditions. But Hong Kong at this stage is still importing a lot of artists and the market from abroad to promote it in Hong Kong. There is quite a gap on richness and diversity. In London on the other hand you can go out to see any shows anytime and anywhere as there are so many. It’s basically the whole concept of creative mind -which is not very embedded in the culture. Hong Kong is still not very art based - the first thing you think of is money, banks, finance, trading….that’s the difficulty here. Yes there are a few more street artists coming in here and there which is really cool. Oh yes! I wanted to ask you that as I know that you are doing murals as well, right? Yeye. Because there is more common - the spontaneous appreciation for the art that you can walk by and you see people doing on the street. I don't think that there is none of the interest for the creatives, it's just hard to access it and make it more for the public. But if you know someone it is much easier - you already are in the circle. That’s how Hong Kong works, you just need to know people. What do you think that Hong Kong needs to do to make art more accessible to the public? I think it’s because a lot of artists are struggling to do their own thing - such as their cost of living, the rent - it’s super high. You need to have a studio, home and a lot of restrictions that we have now contribute to the lack of money too. Many people here see art as a very unclear and unstable industry and a way of life. I think that sometimes that the conservative thinking is what hurts the art the most. Especially if you live in Asia you need to reach a certain point in your life where you are the most stable. Interestingly enough - coming back to my university, out of 20 people there are only 3 people who ended up making art. Some of the girls who went to uni and stayed in the UK migrated into graphic design and 3D illustrations. Some of them became yoga teachers for example. I feel like people who study Fine Art mostly want to be surrounded by open minded people and not being based in a traditional setting. Do you think that it is quite hard nowadays to be a female sculptor here in Hong Kong?
I dont think it’s hard to be one, I think it’s hard to keep being one (laughs). A lot of my friends tend to think that art is such a luxury to have or to be. You have to find something on the side that will support you in order to keep doing it. So what is the “side” for you if you don't mind me asking? I have a business - a company that is doing interior design, murals, special furnishing for restaurants, galleries or casinos….I'm quite lucky that I have the creative outlet on the side as well as being able to create my own stuff too. Coming back to your work - is there any new area of art that you would like to try or experiment with? Actually I really want to start doing some illustrations. I really want to illustrate some kid’s books for my baby nephews. I really want to rewrite an old Hong Kong stories that I was told by my grandparents - as they never met them. I love the stories that my parents tell me from the past and observe how much Hong Kong changed during that time. As now it is a very different city really. My mum used to live in a very rural area nearby Lion’s Rock. It was a proper wooden house area. It didn't even have any shopping center, pure huts. She told me that everytime when they needed water, she had to hike and cross the whole mountain to get water. And go back - everyday. The stories are so rich - from both of my parents. It is very interesting to see how much Hong Kong is being gentrified in this sense of old stories. What are you planning in the near future? Are you planning any exhibitions after the restrictions? I'd love to be able to have an exhibition this year. I need to create some new stuff. Apart from the illustrations I still want to do something with resin - like create resin sculptures and have a show. It would be something colourful, spontaneous and abstract. I want to focus on the feeling - what the piece made you feel. Within the pandemic and all of the Covid happening - do you think that there is an aspect from it that would inspire you in your pieces to portray it? I don't really want to focus on something that is as vivid and hard to grasp. I think Covid in a sense made me learn about how I am with myself and on my own since you can't meet with people apart from zoom. It definitely shaped my thinking and focusing on myself and how it affects my feelings about it. I enjoyed learning about myself. So to put the cherry on top - what does Creativity in Hong Kong mean to you? It’s quite important - I really want Hong Kong to be a place where you can creatively thrive. When I was young, you don't really think about being an artist, you just enjoy being in a moment and what you do on that time, I feel like it would be really good if HK would invite people that would feel confident in creating their art and create a space in which it’s okay to be yourself. It’s the Asian mentality - always having a money making career. People need to find a new confidence in which they trust in art to boost their confidence. It’s not really easy but it’s not very hard to be one - it all depends on how much you actually want it. I wish there were more exhibitions and more embracing of local artists. Once there is a proper representation it motivates others. And when you see it you can believe it. Follow Ruby on Instagram: @rubylaw.artist and @rldstudio_ Visit her website: www.rubylaw.net NFT art: www.rarible.com/rlsartist
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AuthorAlex Edwards is a founder of Creative Womxn in Hong Kong who has media and journalism background but also experience in art community development and social media management. Archives
November 2022
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