Ruth Charnock Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
I make work about and from difficult embodiments, anger, shame, motherhood, queerness and gender. I am also part of a feminist making collective, in its first stirrings, and work increasingly within animist and divinatory storyworking practices, like tarot.
I make stories and spaces and help other people make stories and spaces through writing, image, ritual and tarot. Primarily, I think of myself as a storyworker, writer and artist. My work is about and originates from difficult embodiments, anger, shame, motherhood, queerness and gender. I am also part of a feminist making collective, in its first stirrings, and work increasingly within animist and divinatory storyworking practices, like tarot.
I make things with + out of feminist feelings. For example, one of my most recent pieces, a small sculpture entitled 'maybe i have it easy, then' considers gendered work, emotional knots + the effluvia of childbirth. It is currently exhibiting with another piece 'is it fair though is it fair', as part of the Maternochronics show: https://www.maternochronics.com/exhibition-part-2/ruth-charnock. I'm also part of an ongoing collaboration with Dr Karen Schaller, 'Witching the Institution', which incorporates knot-making, immersive space building, ritual, incantation and performance within institutional spaces [currently, the British university].
I am the author and editor of 'Joni Mitchell: New Critical Readings'. My current book-length project is about Anais Nin, bad sex and reading. I write about the good stuff: shame, disappointment, gender, sex, embodiment, witchery, and music. In 2019, I won the Antonia Fraser prize for authors.
From 2018-2020, I was an Associate Artist at Grimm & Co. and Mansions of the Future.
