Ruth Barker

Writing to be Read

All text is copyright Ruth Barker unless otherwise credited.

Please contact me if you wish to use any material.

See also the ongoing Public Art Scotland Editorial, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Artefact Studies residency blog, hosted on Intersections.

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2010	Places Of Belonging. Article published in the first issue of Maag Magazine, Edited by Audhilde Dahlstrom, Guest Editor Pavla Alchin, published by NABROAD.
	On Seeking The Temporary In Contemporary Public Art Article featured in MACMAG 34, the architecture magazine published by the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow.
	Conversation And The Art Of Something Chapter in printwork 'Sym-po-zeum', produced as part of the Open Glasgow strand of Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art. This printed bookwork accompanied a day long performance and sculptural installation event between artists Ruth Barker, Kathryn Elkin, Martine Myrup, and Sarah Tripp.
	O, O, O. Chapter in printwork Gnomerro, designed and curated by Sarah Tripp.
2009	Sometimes We Aren't Who We Think We Are: The Transgression Of Autobiography In Dani Marti's 'insideout.' Catalogue essay for a solo project by Dani Marti. Distributed through Glasgay.
	Taking Apart And Putting Together Like Arguments. Commentary on solo exhibition by Lynn Hynd, Ten Til Ten Gallery, Glasgow.
	Deep Breaths: Steps Across The Floor; Ink Across The Walls. Catalogue essay for Deep Breaths, a series of interventions in Govanhill Baths, Glasgow.
	Witnessing The Invisible: Absence And Presence In The Work Of Jim Ramsay. Catalogue essay for an upcoming publication on the work of Glasgow painter Jim Ramsay. Release date: Autumn 2009.
	Project2891 Account of project2891 by Ben Dembroski, as the work was installed in Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow. Commissioned by the artist as feedback on his PhD in visual art practice.
2008	Small Lights In Great Darkness: A New Cinema Of Many Sided Sense. Published in 'Audhild Dahlstrøm', produced in association with the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema by L'Espace VideoGraphe, Montreal.
	Live Art And Living: Related And Unrelated Thoughts On The Lure And The Lack Of The Live Published in 'Its not Hard *Grammatical Error Intentional' Anthony Schrag (ed).
	Catherine Street Published in 'Catherine Street', produced by Stills, Edinburgh.
	Leather And Separation. Text written in response to 'After The Field' by Claire Barclay, an exhibition at Washington Garcia. Text Commissioned by Washington Garcia.
	After The Field Commentary on the Work of Claire Barclay in the exhibition 'After The Field' for Washington Garcia. Text Commissioned by Washington Garcia.
	The Great Release Commissioned to accompany the exhibition 'The Great Release' by Kendall Koppe and Douglas Morland in Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow.
2007	You Can't Solve The Problems You Created Using The Thinking That Created Them Notes from the Highland Updates Conference 2007, Strathpeffer, Ross and Cromarty, commissioned for the PAR+RS (Public Art Resource and Research) website.
	The Power Of Mental Images Review of exhibition at Project Ability's Centre for Developmental Arts (CDA), Glasgow, commissioned by Project Ability, reprinted in Raw Vision issue 62.
	Museums As Memory; Memory As Mind. Text for VAGA (Visual Arts and Galleries Association) leaflet for the Museums Association's annual conference.
	Stop Making Sense Introductory talk given at the Working in Public Seminar series public dissemination event, held at the New Scottish Parliament, Sept. 2007. With thanks to Chris Freemantle for transciption.
	Taking The Matter Into Common Hands: Review Review for MAP Magazine of 'Taking The Matter Into Common Hands: On Contemporary Art and Collaborative Practices', Edited by Johanna Billing, Maria Lind and Lars Nilsson, Black Dog Publishing, 2007.
	/ Feature on the punctuation mark '/' for Itch magazine, Capetown. www.itch.co.za
	Statement Of The Obligations And Non-Obligations Of Public Art EXTRACT: "Public Art has no obligation to be art; Public Art has no obligation to be anything other than art."
	Between The Lines Of Maps: Wonders, Dragons, And The Philosophy Of One Mile Article commissioned by Collective Gallery for One Mile Newspaper (issue 2).
	Fragments And Doubts Essay commissioned to accompany "Not A Disentanglement From But A Progressive Knotting Into" exhibition featuring work by Douglas Morland, Steven Anderson and Javier Ferro at LowSalt Gallery, Glasgow.
	Back Over The Horizon Paper given at the Common Work conference at Tramway, Glasgow, discussing the Commissioned work Placed Upon The Horizon.
	Any Rules However, Were Made To Be Broken Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Public Practice. Written in response to issues raised through the 'Working in Public' seminar series organised by On the Edge Research (based at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen) in collaboration with Suzanne Lacy.
	Blackness, Night, Shadow: Darkness In The Work Of Yeo Chee Kiong Catalogue essay for 'House' - solo exhibition by Yeo Chee Kiong, Jendala Gallery, Singapore.
	If I Opened My Eyes I Might See Teeth Commentary on the work of Miranda Whall and Aron Tarjani, commissioned by Washington Garcia Gallery, Glagsow
2006	Wrong House Commentary on solo project by Sigga Bjorg Sirgurdardottir, commissioned by Washington Garcia Gallery, Glasgow
	Caesar: Prologue, The Violence Of Abbreviation EXTRACT: "Caesar aims at the heights of multum in parvo, the ability to suggest a great deal in a short amount of time. In some ways this intention is a somewhat faltering metonym to the properties of language itself, as articulation could disingenuously be described as the process of consolidating the ineffable and infinite space of thought into the finite and sometimes disappointing recourse of words."
	Reach Commentary on solo show by David Stamp, Glasgow Project Room. Commissioned by the artist.
	Back To Back They Faced Each Other; Art And The Everyday Of Terror EXTRACT: "Specifically, I want to ask how we as artists think about how art might exist as a form within the world, and perhaps what kind of a world we think about art being a form within." Talk given at CCA Glasgow, as part of the 'New Co-Efficient' Symposium on the work of Andrew Sunley Smith.
	The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly; Art, Morality, And The Post Postmodern. EXTRACT: "We're going to start by introducing our work and then we'll use that as a way to start to talk about the idea of Morality in relation to art. It's a very personal view and like any decent pub conversation it may involve some lies." A Pub Conversation between Ruth Barker and Niall Macdonald. Commissioned and hosted by Self Service, in the Lamp Tavern, Birmingham.
	Caesar: Art And Myth EXTRACT "Art and Myth, though different in appearance, share many similarities; so many that theories of Myth can be used to examine Art."
	Caesar: What Is What Is Not There? EXTRACT: "In music, it has been suggested that each note exists with reference to the one preceding it, and with anticipation for that which will succeed it. In this way silence is an articulation of sound as well as a demarcation of sound's absence, since silence frames sound as surely as sound frame silence."
	Collaboration In The Work Of Something Haptic EXTRACT: "Something Haptic makes work about particular externalised themes and concerns, and our collaborative practice becomes a way to execute that investigation. I just wanted to stress before we start that the methodology and the content of practice are not necessarily the same thing, and that in the case of this group particularly they are distinctly different." Talk given at Perthshire Visual Arts Forum.
	Caesar: How Things Are Made EXTRACT: "When an artist wants to make art, they routinely produce more than one object/image/work over a period of time. The objects/images/works produced over this duration have a relationship with one another and this relationship becomes an art practice."
	Caesar: I Am For Art EXTRACT: "I am for art as a gallows"
	Simultaneously Through Time Commentary on a solo project by Anne Marie Copestake, commissioned by Glasgow Sculpture Studios for Glasgow international 2006.
	Face Of An Angel, Voice Of A Demon Review of solo project by Jonny Scott, for EmergeD / Glasgow international 2006
	Is This The Avant Garde? / Forme Floue: Just What Is It That Makes Todays Art So Different, So Appealing? EXTRACT: "If a widely held ideological position is never explicitly defined or articulated through language, there is a risk that it becomes an unspoken normative position from which all alternatives seem either 'other' or naive misinterpretation. From this basis I see a priority in naming and defining an apparently undefined trend within contemporary fine art."
2005	Whose Gravity They Can't Escape Review of New Work by Niall Macdonald and Jim Ramsey, Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow. Commissioned by the artists.
	Motor Mouth Review of new work by Jessica Harrison, National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. Commissioned by MAP Magazine
	To Break It Or Burn It Or Steal It And Keep It Review of solo exhibition by Stephanie Connelly in GSS Gallery, Glasgow. Commissioned by The Skinny magazine.
	Win One For The Gipper Review of solo exhibition by Becky Sik at VSF # 2 Gallery, Glasgow commissioned by The Skinny magazine.
	The Horizon Bringeth... And The Horizon Taketh Away Review of solo show by Leonorra Hennessay, Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow
	The Placing Of Things In The World EXTRACT: "Sculpture is a matter of matter - of the placing and re-placing of things in the world. To talk about sculpture is sometimes to talk about the things that surround it, even if we do not ever explicitly connect them."
2003	Max Ernst, Andrew Kerr, Katherina Wolff Review of exhibition in Transmission Gallery, commissioned by Transmission Gallery
	The Dialectics Of Mapping Questions of the rise of contemporary art in Scotland
	This Is The New Facade Review of Toby Patterson exhibition at CCA Glasgow
	The Philosophy Of Art After 'Art After Philosophy' EXTRACT: "In addressing the question of Kosuth's definition of art, the most problematic term is arguably that of 'art' itself, which initially appears to struggle through Kosuth's essay under the weight of a range of different meanings. However, the fact that Art After Philosophy does not reduce the term to an isolated state effectively means that the word retains its ability to exist as an idea of art as well as within a specific object or example."
2000	All Wolves Are Not Of The Same Sort EXTRACT: "'The Wolf', as a figure in our contemporary Western culture, is rich with association, though it is a spectre so distanced from our every day lives that few of us will ever encounter a wild one. Persecuted and hunted almost to the point of extinction, they have been given the staple shape of terror in many of our fairy tales and horror stories."

Writing to be Read