“Revolve” is inspired by the idiomatic expression, “As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.”It is intended as an invitation to a conversation pointed at the topic of gun violence in New Orleans and the cycle in which it systematically revolves. A cycle that should alarm us in the same way in which it would if we walked into a room where a child was playing with a loaded gun.
Rontherin Ratliff’s autonomous artistic approach to contextualizing found objects that elicit memories enveloped in emotions acts as messages to viewers in an unspoken language of cognitive bias. Ratliff uses architectural materials and domesticated objects to correlate the dwelling as meditation and domiciles to inform experimental assemblage works, large-scale sculpture, and site-responsive installations while exploring internal versus external balance. Ratliff has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Miami, FL, Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC, among others. Ratliff’s work is included in the publications Artscope, The Brooklyn Rail, The Advocate, Country Roads Magazine, Pelican Bomb, New York Times, and more. Exhibitions include his solo Finding Way, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LA (2019), Peter and the Wolf, Works and Process at the Guggenheim, New York, NY (2009), Katrina Then And Now: Artist As Witness, Iris, and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, Worcester, MA (2016), At Home In The World, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, New Mexico (2016), De Verhalen van Groningen Foundation, Kerstvloed 1717 Art Route 2017, Groningen, NL (2017), southXeast: Contemporary Southeastern Art, University Galleries (2000), Per(Sister), Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, NY (2021) and Wa Na Wari, Seattle, WA (2023).
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“Revolve” is inspired by the idiomatic expression, “As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.”It is intended as an invitation to a conversation pointed at the topic of gun violence in New Orleans and the cycle in which it systematically revolves. A cycle that should alarm us in the same way in which it would if we walked into a room where a child was playing with a loaded gun.
Counterbalance happens when one weight balances another weight. In these series, functionality, aesthetics, context, and associations explore subjects of loneliness, loss, homesickness, memory, and the burdens we often carry. For me, it’s just steps of a journey searching for the equilibrium that may or may not exist between life and art. Counterbalance explores the metaphor of the body as a house where the mind dwells. Not just the home as the focus of one's domestic attention or a place of origin but to be at home or in harmony within while questioning the sociocultural constructed concepts of self.
Contemplating reservations of home as a safe haven or sanctuary, in which one experiences positive qualities such as security, privacy, belonging, and comfort and develops a healthier sense of self. This work explores the notion of internal versus external balance.