Ione Rucquoi
Bête Noir, 2007, 99 x 93 cm
Horn Boy, 2010, 100 x 80 cm
Killer, 2007, 99 cm x 88 cm
Birthday Girl,2007, 96 cm x 93 cm
Crabbie, 2006, 1010 x 96 cm
The Nest, 2007, 106 cm x 106 cm
Heart to Heart, 2006, 106 x 109 cm
Mother and Child, 2010, 100 x 82 cm
About the Artist
Ione Rucquoi’s striking artwork is sometimes uncomfortable and disarming; challenging the viewer/potential buyer and probing at our own uneasiness.
The images centre on women, their emotions, relationships, rites of passage and feminine psychology. She is inspired by beauty, ‘the beast within’, preconceptions and misconceptions.
Each image is captured through photography, but Ione doesn’t see herself as a photographer. She layers the images by painting the background, painting and dressing the model — including make-up, prosthetics, costume and props — as though her subject is a character on a stage.
The protagonists of her artwork are often exaggerated, distorted and surreal. Some images evolve quickly, but other ideas remain floating in her subconscious until she’s ready to express them through art.
Ione explains: “A lot of my work is autobiographical. It’s not the sort of work I can just churn out. It’s sometimes difficult with people breathing down your neck asking you to produce more work.”
Ione collects feathers, bones, shells and other props to use in her images from Dartmoor. Her freezer is half full with dead animals collected from farmers and abattoirs. But at the moment her pregnancy is making her ‘too squeamish to work with guts’.
Ione’s surreal images both repulse and attract you. Innards play a symbolic role in her images, but also a practical reality.
“I’m not trying to shock people. We have all got guts inside us and it’s what makes us tick and allows us to live,” she said. (More)
Ione Rucquoi at bo.lee Gallery
Posted by Carmelita Caruana
Impressive!