Ruth Ige: The worlds within the blue

Ruth Ige

The worlds within the blue

The worlds within the blue Ruth Ige

Paintings, poems, prose

Dear readers

This is Ruth Ige. Just want to thank everyone who is taking time out of their busy schedule to read this book. I want to also say thank you to those who have supported my practice, to those who understand my vision, and to the new individuals who are just intrigued. This book might not give all the answers, as I like to keep a bit of mystery to the work, but I hope it gives a better understanding.

This publication is structured a bit differently. In a sense it is structured around my perspective and thinking with poems, painting commentary and other elements. I hope this publication will become a window through which you can get a glimpse at the worlds within worlds that I have been exploring, building and creating through painting. Hope you enjoy. Virtual hugs to everyone. Have an awesome day y’all.

Many warm wishes

✕○

Ruth Ige

Worlds within Worlds

The endless unfolding

The shifting spheres between iridescent doors

The luminous unknown arriving before me

The unravelling thread overflowing

Flowing

Moving through spiralled streams and corners of towering mountains

Refracted edges concealing hidden ways

I leap forward beyond the orbit

To see what is there

A thousand sunrises

A thousand moons up here

A portal

A dawning

Blue tesseracts unform

Expanding beyond

Beyond

Realms once known

The foundational and the experimental elements

The foundational elements of my practice are my blue palette, the black figure and exploring blackness. Those are the things I build my paintings upon. Though my palette stays the same I am constantly exploring different aspects of blackness that I am intrigued with. So, at times the works and brushstrokes might be more minimalist and the next works, they might become more maximalist and brushstrokes looser and freer. The topic within the sphere of blackness might also change. It depends on what I am exploring, researching at that present time and what I am feeling intuitively.

Concealing and revealing:

The conversation between abstraction and figuration

I began as an abstract painter. I do see myself as an abstract painter who is painting figuration: an abstract painter who is translating the figure. However, I do not like to choose one over the other. Both are equally important to me. There is a conversation between the two art forms that I want to occur within each painting and my practice in general. I feel that even within art history and the art community, there is pressure to choose one over the other. Exploring and embodying both these important forms of art is important for me from the art history standpoint whilst exploring blackness. Furthermore, as humans, as we navigate space and the world we are constantly revealing and concealing aspects of our selves. This is also quite an important thing that we do as black people. We conceal aspects of our self when we feel unwelcomed or when we want to keep certain

aspects of our culture sacred. By using abstraction and figuration I can visually and conceptually show the practice of concealing and revealing that we all do to a certain degree as humans and more specifically as black people. In the painting The woman with the healing gift aspects of the figure and surroundings are concealed and aspects are revealed. There is a blur between the figure and her surroundings. A visual, spatial conversation is occurring in a way that describes the mystical interaction between her and the space she occupies. In each painting how much is concealed or revealed is different. There are paintings where more aspects of the figure are revealed, or more is concealed. In The woman with the healing gift more is concealed than revealed. She is quite a mystical woman and her gift is quite sacred, and so there is deep protection you see visually.

In a place between two dimensions, I saw freedom personified. I saw that, in both her waking and sleeping, she would have recurring dreams and visions – dreams of liberation, hope, wonder, sorrow, joy and justice. A mothering entity, I could see her watching, hoping and longing for the best for the black diaspora and black individuals in their navigation of life. Her heart ached as she saw the injustice inflicted through the ages. I saw her cheering and rising to her feet when she witnessed movements of resistance. She would wail and grieve like a mother who lost her child every time a black life was lost or wrongly taken. She would visit people in the night through their dreams, giving words of encouragement, but also ideas and tools to fight against systems of oppression. At times she would appear as an apparition of light and wrap her arms around those who were disheartened. She would give spiritual gifts shaped like flowers and bestow mantels of blessings on those who needed them.

I imagine her still waiting, hoping for her dreams to come to pass. These paintings are from her perspective. They are a small glimpse into her inner world. Mostly portraits – through her eyes – of how she views these figures. Through her gaze of upliftment, empathy, compassion and sorrow these paintings are formed.

This is also an exploration of the many facets and expressions of freedom within the black community across the world. The need for freedom that has been fought for throughout the decades. The recurrence of that dream appearing over and over again throughout history. That dream manifesting itself in movements, communities, people, ideas and creativity.

These paintings explore the long-held tradition of black imagination and black speculative fiction as an access point of emancipation, and its importance as a tool of healing, escape, resistance, empowerment and self-care. This body of work is a love letter to the black diaspora. Prelude: Freedom’s recurring dream

A dream of the great day of unity

In the cool of the day like sounds of chimes and birds flying above walls and mountains the sound of strong wind rushing through leaves and angel wings there appeared a great sight a great light hovering above the fields of flowers

I saw a family gathered with skin of midnight like an onyx stone glimmering in the moonlight

A multitude

more than the oceans and seas black hues and golden streams from different times and places

All there together dancing, laughing, weeping, healing, being held by the light

Accessing freedom through speculative fiction

Speculative fiction is a powerful tool. People often belittle the power it holds and see it as something that is just for fun. Through speculative fiction I can access freedom that might not be present, and create beyond systemic constraints and walls. I am able to access limitless possibilities, ideas and ways of thinking, seeing and approaching complex issues. It holds a rich history of being used to speak on injustices, practice self-care, and empowerment within the black community. It was also used to access freedom that was denied to them and imagine better worlds. By utilising it I am honouring those who came before me and carrying on that rich tradition. Through it I can show the multiplicity of blackness that has always been there.

In the painting And she had the power to

command the light, we see this black woman accessing a power she always had. Fully embracing her power. Fully standing in that power after centuries of being dismissed and belittled. Here we see her breaking through those constraints and being who she truly is and not what has been demanded from her.

Also drawing from precolonial beliefs and systems can seem quite sci-fi and speculative. So, that aspect is strongly intertwined into the speculative parts of my work. Personally, I used to write sci-fi and fantasy stories since I was little. It has always been a tool of empowerment and joy for me and at times an escape. Exploring both the escapism and empowerment qualities of speculative fiction also draws me to it.

And she had the power to command the light, 2022

An evocation

The evocation of the unknown

The evocation of healing

The evocation of power

The evocation of worlds

And she appeared at your side (Freedom)

And that day you called out to the void

You called out to the sea beside you

And to the moon above you

You called out to distant realms

And she appeared at your side

Like an apparition

She placed a handful of flowers Within your palm

And said Keep this near

Pull it within the chambers of your heart Guard its light

May it strengthen you

When your spirit is weary

The painting The connection has a visual duality that I often use in my practice. I love both abstraction and figuration equally. So, there is this innate attention to the arrangement of form and colour you would find in an abstract painter, but also the reverence of the figure and its spirit and story you would find in a figurative painter. My paintings move in and out of figuration and abstraction continuously within each work. Almost like a shapeshifter continuously morphing at each glance. At first glance you might think The connection is solely abstract painting and the black figures are just patterns or are part of a tree. However, The connection has these figures, showing diasporic connections, community and my hope for more unity within the black community. I love exploring that duality where something is both things. The more you look the more something is revealed where your glance is the conversation, and the painting responds by revealing more to you.

The

lament

Freedom

Are you a ghost?

Are you a mirage?

Or a childish dream

A luminous fantasy

Glittering one moment in the sun

And gone during a moment of rain

I have heard stories of your elusive ways From elders and ancestors before us who called on your name who spent most of their life looking for traces of you.

Looking for the proof of your existence.

Abundance

May your words build cities

May they tear down hate

May rivers and streams flow from their depths

Nourishing the earth

Multiplying

Sustaining all that is love

May your words build worlds

Places of belonging

Places of rest

Dwellings of change

May your words

Never be hidden

Let them be bold

Let them be the haven

Where freedom can reside and grow

Spilling beyond the boundaries

May you know your worth, 2022

There are times when I need a break from painting a portrait. This was one of those times. It helps to change up the rhythm of things. It allows me to stir up the creative juices. Particularly when I want to paint something more abstract, but still have the black figure as the focus. At times I paint arms or hands holding flowers or objects or reaching out. I love flowers. Absolutely love them. Flowers hold so many different meanings depending on the type and the culture. They say all that needs to be said. This painting was part of Freedom’s recurring dream where this figure received a bouquet of flowers from Freedom the mothering entity. In my prelude for the exhibition freedom gave spiritual gifts shaped as flowers. It is quite a healing painting for anyone who has ever felt alone or overlooked. It is just a nod to the viewer and me, like ‘hey someone sees you’.

all things dear, 2022

The solace of the night

A familiar friend

An ever-present silence

Beckoning

Beckoning us to rest

A listening ear

Liquid black

Black like us

Beckoning

Beckoning us to rest

You reach out

With hands outstretched forward

Beckoning

Beckoning us to rest

Your dark skies

A comfort for us

Beckoning

Beckoning us to rest

will be ok, 2023

A foretelling, 2023

Sacred waters (tears)

When words cannot bear the burden

These tears become sacred waters

Spilling beneath my feet

Falling to hollow ground

Rising around me

And I let go

And float above its surface

And swim beneath its streams

Oh, these sacred waters

Tears from you and me

Tears of those before us

Ebb and flow by the trees

Moving through the memorial stones of our longings

And the monuments of our dreams

Bring forth new life

Oh, you sacred waters

Prelude:

And you are of the heavens and of the earth

I have been observing ideas of the ethereal and how society views things that are ethereal, holy, heavenly, otherworldly, royal and beautiful as things void of blackness and black people. Blackness has been systematically categorized as not having the characteristics or innate ability to be ethereal both visually, historically and spiritually: as a visual colour and as a race. And you are of the heavens and of the earth is a declaration, but also an exploration. The body of work weaves speculative fiction, history, art history, traditional culture, precolonial belief, future imaginings and my own created mythologies. It explores blackness from otherworldly beings to the everyday person and those who hover between multiple worlds and dimensions.

And you are of the heavens and of the earth

And you are of the heavens and of the earth,

Beloved of the light

Beloved of the water

Beloved of the spirit and all its wonder. You are the light revealed The light released

The light unwavering Uncontained

Moving through woven realms, dimensions, universes, and worlds You are worthy of the earth and all its blessings You are worthy of the heavens and all its honour.

Angels with blue tinged feathers

Stand by the place of a new dawning

They watched this light

And all its ways

It was not the sun

Or the moon

Or even the stars

They would bow and honour it

And when the light grew dim

When it seemed like it was dying

Being pulled under the sludge

Under the murk

They would call it forth

And give it strength

And their voices in one accord

Pulled it from drowning

What was this light they were guarding?

Everyone from the past, present and future could live together here. Life nor death could separate them. Nor the borders between the heavens and earth.

What happens when you liberate time from itself and free it from its own knowing?

And when midnight befell us then you appeared, 2024

Discovering the gift of flight

And it weighed on your chest

The constraint

The lack of change

The stagnant sorrow

At times

You could feel it on your shoulders

Mundane

Sluggish gnawing frustration

And so, you ran And ran

And did not look back

You ran till your lungs collapsed open You ran till your own shadow detached from your frame

You opened your arms wide

And unleashed your heart towards the void And sang out

You closed your eyes

You picked up speed

Swinging your arm fervently And when you opened your eyes

You had ascended above

Decisions

, 2023

far, 2025

Pre-colonial

And we knew who we were Scholars of our own lands

Stewards of the soil and all it brought forth In tune with its rhythm

And with its ways

Knowledge passed down Wisdom from our elders

Wisdom from the skies

Wisdom from the waters Honoured in our midst

The oil

The adornment

The bronze

The clay

Our words

Our perspectives

Our songs Were also of the heavens

We were also of the heavens

The poetic notions of blue

To some, blue is just blue. It is just that everyday colour of the sky you gaze at, whilst sitting in the car on the way to the mundane. To others it is just that sad cold colour, moody, thunderous and sombre.

Yes blue is just that everyday colour of the sky, but it is also that same sky at night. Velvety blue black and mystical. A vast universe unknown to us. It is the oceans and rivers that surround us giving life to things that give us life.

Yes it is sadness that gives voice to sorrow and oppression, but it is also joy and life that gives birth to new things. A cleansing and washing away of old ideas and systems that are not built for all. A renewal of things, but also a rediscovery of things buried and brought in by the tide.

It is comfort and meditation. A learning to slow down and really look. To pause and reposition. To live within the unknown and be comfortable there.

To give immortality to fleeting moments and take shelter within its embrace. To dance within deep wells and stand under the waves of calm.

At times it is silence that hovers. A silence that leaps and spins around canopies of hidden things. Unearthing a strange atmosphere where you could almost see silhouettes of angel wings. Melodies of blue ascending and descending in a fury of brushstrokes.

Yet it is heritage and culture. It is the indigo dye of the Adire fabric of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Regal and beautiful blue patterns bearing stories and blessings adorned on the bodies of a nation like sapphire stones set in a crown..

Blue is the colour I build my worlds in, where flashes of various colours make their brief appearances. Where the black figures I create are allowed to be free and be themselves. They roam between dimensions of history and fiction. Hidden and surrounded, but seen within the safety of these havens. It is a language I have made my own.

The shimmering blue (year 2050)

Beyond the trees down there

Stood the shimmering blue,

The deepest blue

My eyes had seen

Pulsing

A pulsing blue

The oceans walking

The skies above come down to greet me

It slowly made its way

Pacing itself with the sound of the wind

Charging the air around it

Waves upon waves of light

Poured from its being

And as it stood before me

It said nothing

But I felt its empathy

And with a second glance It disappeared

Blue (colour that breathes)

Oh under the embrace of the all knowing

That is the colour blue,

There before the emergence of all things

Carrier of sacred realms and histories

Language and symbols hidden within

Cycles

Life

Birth

Death

Resurrection

Reincarnation

Eternity

Portals to ancient waters

Doorways to the heavens

Protect us from evil

And bring forth your peace and your mercy

As we walk through uncharted realms

Give us courage in the face of hate

To lift our heads high

And let us rest in the deep wells of cerulean

And make homes in the concaves of your eternal

Perspective

Look again

See what is beyond

The surface is not what it seems

Under the soil

Are the roots of a future garden

And flowers still grow

The flowers that bloomed beside the ruins

Nourished from the tears I cried

I held them tightly

A monument so fragile

So small

And though they Will soon wither away

They remind me that

Though there is despair

Beauty is there

Still emerging

The shoreline of time

And they stood at the shoreline of time

Where the seas of the past

The seas of our present

And the seas of things to come

Overlapped at this shoreline

And a group of seers

Stood at the mountain overlooking these waters

And called out

May we know more!

May we not be bound by time!

And a door of light opened up

Before them

And I saw them enter into that light

I thought I knew the depths of you (blackness)

I thought I knew the depths of you, Your joys Your fears Your victory Your pain

We cried tears together We laughed We sang

And danced through circumstances My dear friend.

I thought you were like a mountain still,

You are a mountain

But one day I saw you change into a bird You flew above the clouds and hovered And I saw you spread your wings What is this?!

So amazing!

And as I turned to speak

You become an ocean Dark Brilliant

Carrying the unknown

And I watched as you turned into a multitude of things

You became everything of the earth

And everything of the heavens

And everything not known to us

And everything of light

And everything of power

And everything of spirit

And everything of wonder

What is beyond even the future?

In the studio

Bottom

Bottom

Bottom

Bottom

Top left Ruth Ige with work in studio

Top right The making of Woman with two flower guides

Bottom left Explorations

Bottom right Explorations with blue spirulina and Nigerian dried leaves

Biography

Ruth Ige was born in 1992 in Ilé-If`e . , Nigeria, and lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Auckland University of Technology in 2016.

And you are of the heavens and of the earth, her first exhibition in Cape Town, took place in 2024, following Freedom’s recurring dream, her gallery debut in Johannesburg (2022). Other solo exhibitions include Acts of rest (with Esther Ige) at Season Aotearoa (2025); The poetic notions of blue: A haven at McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2025); Between Two Dimensions at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles (2022); The poetic notions of blue at McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2021); A Place Apart, a two-person show at City Gallery, Wellington (2020); and Traces of Secrecy, RM Gallery, Auckland (2017).

Ige has been selected for the 36th São Paulo Biennale, Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice (September 2025 to January 2026). She has participated in group exhibitions at Bode Gallery, Havana (2024); Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland (2024); Auckland Art Gallery (2024); Andrew Kreps, New York (2024); McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2020); Karma, New York (2019); Ngutu Kaka Gallery, School of Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology (2019); The Vivian, Matakana (2018); and Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland (2017); in addition to Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2021-24).

She is the recipient of the 2025 Rydal Art Prize presented by Te Uru Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, with a solo exhibition upcoming at that gallery in 2026.

© 2025 for works and texts: Ruth Ige

Catalogue 99 August 2025

Design Gabrielle Guy

Photography Mario Todeschini, Nina Lieska, Earl Abrahams, Esther Ige, Ruth Ige

Printed by Tandym, Cape Town

With thanks to Holly Peterson for her support

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