Ruth Höflich,
Safe Workshop, 2020
About
‘Safe’ was a series of online workshops structured around Todd Haynes’ film (1995) of the same name. Participants of the workshop met weekly over 4 sessions to discuss the circumstances of sudden immunity loss and possible departures from a moment of personal dissolution.
The film follows Carol, an upper middle class white woman living in suburban California in the 80s through a period of acute hypersensitivity where she finds herself and body at constant risk of environmental toxicity. Unable to be diagnosed, Carol joins a wellness cult where she spirals further and further into self isolation.
Participants discussed why her disease remains ambiguous, the role of ambient invisibility and systemic marginalisation and how we might resist a neoliberal therapeutics towards other definitions of care. They considered works by Johanna Hedva, Audre Lorde, Alexis Wright, Nicole Seymour and Dodie Bellamy and watched additional excerpts from films like Melancholia by Lars von Trier and Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman.
Through presentations, they explored performative, essayistic forms and overlapping and entangled logics that bring in elements of their own practices.
Through ongoing reading, writing, and collaboration Michael Bojkowski, Erin Crouch, Georgie Flood, H.A. Halpert, Ruth Höflich, Christiane Huber, Olivia Koh, Hen Vaughan, Briony Galligan and Pip Wallis developed a publication 'SAFE: Rearranging the Library' which was launched as part of the NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair.
Bios
Ruth Höflich is a german-born artist currently based in Melbourne. Primarily grounded in video and photography, her practice also incorporates text and collaborative frameworks. Her work has been shown internationally at venues such as Kunstverein Munich, Haus der Kunst and Lothringer13, Munich; ICA and Arcade Fine Arts, London; Lubov, New York and The Hidden Bar, Art Basel. In 2019 she was awarded the Georges Mora Fellowship at The State Library of Victoria, Melbourne. Previously she was the recipient of The Emerging Artist Prize of the City of Munich in 2016. Ruth has participated in residencies at Grizedale Arts, UK, The Banff Centre, Canada and Cell Project Space, London amongst others. She holds an MFA from Bard College, New York.