Ruth Macdougall | Environmental Artist
My environmental art practice has developed through my experiences living, studying and working in locations as diverse as Beirut, Chile, China, Zambia and the Scottish Countryside.
At the heart of my work is the engagement and participation of those communities amongst whom I live. As a primary source of information and guidance, I rely on evolving relationships and subtle collaborations to arrive at a work that not only tells a story but also characterises the community that tells and retells that story.
Through ongoing research, ideas of physical endurance and environmental sustainability continually surface as partner concepts that inspire and drive me. As I choose to undertake the performative element in the majority of my own works, I have inescapably come to address the notion of female fragility; a relatively modern myth. Consequently, the live performances to audience and camera, which have formed the body of my work over recent years, have been described by others as having a ”mythic quality”. I welcome this description.