Ruth’s practice emerged from the outcomes of research, collaboration, and fieldwork based around water and its potential held within various water bodies—from Arctic Icebergs, the Baltic Sea, and Irish lakes and waterfalls. She listens to the mystical, mythical, and metaphysical forces that act upon and interact with water. By considering aqueous connections between human bodies, other bodies, and all forms of water and liquid, it becomes clear how interconnected we are with nature and the environment, leading to a concept she describes as “becoming a body of water.”

Her work produced as a result of the Arctic residency led to several significant solo shows and a collaboration with The Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN) and CCA Laznia. The Institute of Oceanology conducts scientific research in the Baltic and European Arctic Seas. In her research, Ruth is interested in exploring the psychological and philosophical features of the human condition that allow transcendence of physical and psychological boundaries of human experience and the intellectual dilemmas that shape the psyche when confronting the feelings and experiences of the sublime. Inflecting this research, she fuses research and experiential creative technologies to study how a sense of place, material, being, and interconnectedness can be experienced in terms of connotation, as well as denotation, and to organize these perspectives from different viewpoints as important ways of seeing and being. She believes understanding this experience of the sublime can have a far-reaching effect, elevating and edifying what it means to be human and our relationships within an ever-changing environment.

Her work finds form in moving image, sculpture, sound, and water remedies. Ruth’s practice has engaged with various water bodies from Irish lakes and waterfalls, Arctic Icebergs, the Baltic Sea, the high desert waters, and many others in between, listening to the mystical, mythical, and metaphysical forces that act upon and interact with water. Her process involves serial dilutions, forming tiny poetic time machines where each water sample is explored to see what is held within.

Le Gear has exhibited solo at:

• Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus (DE) (2018)
• Water Senses | Leitrim Sculpture Centre (2017)
• Trace at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Gdansk (2015)
• Water that Sleeps at Galway Arts Centre (2009)

Group shows include:

• Artworks at Carlow Visual (IE) (2019)
• Solas Nua | New Voices of Ireland | Washington DC (2018)
• [Art_Ecology] LAAW + SFAI (2016)
• Et Si On S’etait Trompe at the Centre Cultural Irelandais (2015)
• Art at Tell St.Gallen, Switzerland (2014)
• Ev+a (2008)

Ruth makes essences from water. She has collected icebergs in the Arctic from a tall ship, wandered the desert of New Mexico, and stood on the tip of the Cape of Good Hope. In these places and wherever she is, her intention is always to try to communicate with the water that is there, this most beautiful life-giving force of nature. Each body of water is unique, with its own physical and spiritual history, mineral content, and unique vibration that it imparts on living beings that it encounters. If one has ever had a drink from a crystal clear mountain stream, one from an ancient well, or a swim in the sea, they will know that all water is not the same. Her life’s work is to understand and communicate with water. She explores it in all its layers—the tiny micro-organisms that live in one drop, the huge oceans and ocean creatures, lakes, rivers, clouds, mist, rain, sleet, hail, icebergs, and glaciers. She lives on the North West coast of Ireland, where it rains a lot, mostly pure North Atlantic water, swept up in the storms above Greenland and Iceland.

Ruth Le Gear has worked extensively with the Sligo Children’s Community Garden (SCCG) over the past three years. Part of her practice involves fostering intergenerational connections and community engagement, as evidenced by her projects with SCCG and Kids Own. 

Ruth has successfully worked with SCCG on a number of projects, including the Story Shed, The Seed Project with the Irish Hospice Foundation, and the Intergenerational Podcast with The Community Foundation for Ireland. These can all be seen at https://sligochildrenscommunitygarden.com/projects.