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'A woman's right to make poor choices' 2024, single channel video, colour, sound, 4 minutes 20 seconds.
'Waiting', 2023, watercolour and gouache on Indian rag paper
'Free Love tends to have consequences' 2024, watercolour and gouache on Indian rag paper
'Festival of Sadness' 2023, watercolour and gouache on Indian rag paper
'I won't be a mother to you' 2024, watercolour and gouache on Indian rag paper
Photography by Astrid Mulder, courtesy of Bus Projects.
'A woman's right to make poor choices' (video still) 2024, single channel video, colour, sound, 4 minutes 20 seconds.
Photography by Astrid Mulder, courtesy of Bus Projects.
DATES: JUNE 5TH -29TH Bus Projects
A youtube video of a mother’s voice whispering “shhhhhh” for 8 hours has 27 million views. How many parents have pressed play on this soothing audio to stand in for the village that isn’t there? And how many women have gone through secret abortions in public places? Is it possible to have bodily autonomy whilst breastfeeding? Is the milk, the blood and the tears the artwork or the distraction?
Ruth O’Leary’s new video work explores her experience of abortion in the Spring of 2023. Through the making of ‘Abortion Dresses’ she aims to wear the words of an often shamed and hidden experience. This concept of ‘body writing’ is something Ruth has researched throughout her practice in the creation of ‘Fuck Dresses’ that come to life as a kind of performative wearing of words.