Ruth Canning’s event will run over two weekends at The Workshop, Folkestone. Part 1 will run on the first weekend, Saturday 14th Sept 12 – 4pm. Part 2 will run on Sunday, 22nd Sept 2-4pm. 

In Part 1, Ruth will have already created some music from plant data, and this will be playing in the space. These plants (approx. 20) will be on show in the space and everyone is welcome to come and listen. Visitors will also have the option to tell a plant a memory, dream, secret or other message while Ruth records the plant’s bio-data. The participants can take away their plant - free of charge - and Ruth will later create the individual music track and send it to each participant.

The following weekend, during Part 2 of the event, the participating visitors can return if they wish, along with any other visitors who may visit. Everyone will be able to hear a recorded performance of the music created from the previous weekend’s participants’ activities with the plants. 

Other sound works by Ruth will also be on show at both events. Ruth is a ‘post-studio’ artist and works at a desk with a laptop most of the time, so The Workshop is an appropriate place to showcase how she works, and the participatory event will show how her experimental approach works.

Ruth Canning is a multi-media artist whose practice ranges across installation, sound, photography, text and printing. The mundane everyday (like the weather forecast), the under-the-radar (plant data), the on-going, time, duration and memory all feature in her work. Sound has been a focus in her most recent work. Ruth often works outside the traditional gallery space in everyday spaces – whether an outdoor location, a shop or a mundane space like a lift. That context and public involvement is key to what develops.

Her most recent work - the development of a ‘plant symphony’ from plant bio-data - was performed in her local plant shop and made from the data of the plants in the shop. This one-off event was accompanied by the production of plant labels for many of the plants on sale. These labels displayed QR codes – which, when scanned, played the individual musical track for the plant. Visitors created their own symphony by scanning the codes. Customers could then buy their chosen plant and its music. Ruth’s process is experimental and visitors to the Open Art Folke event can take part in that process.

A laptop and desk at home constitute Ruth’s normal studio, so The Workshop – a shared workspace - which is hosting Ruth during the Open Art Folke festival, is a fitting space to showcase a current work.

Visit Ruth’s website here
@ruth_canning_