Ruth Broadway’s work is influenced by nature and the marks we leave behind. Fuelled by a desire to preserve both these elements, she adapts her materials in accordance with, and in response to, a situation or object as she finds it.

I want to be able to retain and catch a transient moment, thing or memory and hold it forever; preserving it in some form; solidifying something that barely exists. Saving or documenting it before it’s lost forever. I find myself constantly trying to straddle the gap between human control and the spontaneity of nature. I am drawn both to ordering data, formation & display and letting natural elements, life cycles and time take the lead.

My work captures things at the cusp of change – a moon, a moth, the tide.  I like to discover forgotten and disregarded things; a moulted feather, a lip-stick blot, fingerprints on a mirror, an old love letter or shopping list. To me these found things that have been cast off either unnoticed or because of their insignificance, become an opportunity to tenderly work subtle interventions and try and tell their stories.

Using the physical acts of stitching, binding, folding, printing, collecting & preserving to tether the ephemeral, I try to use the ritual of daily noticing, recording and making to foster mindfulness and appreciation of the quiet transformation happening around us. Inspired by traditional folk craft, I embrace the prosaic nature of these techniques to create work that becomes love-letters to the passing of time, transformation and the fragility of life.