Voloshyn Gallery is delighted to present works by Eli Ruhala at Liste Art Fair 2025!
Eli Ruhala’s The(ir) Art of Loving is an immersive installation that merges blue-collar craftsmanship with artistic expression. Rooted in repetitive acts of love, Ruhala’s practice transforms standard materials like drywall and lumber into deeply personal narratives. Inspired by his stepfather’s work as a general contractor and his mother’s hairdressing job, the artist forges a connection between labor and intimacy, reimagining construction as a dynamic pursuit of emotional connection. He views the act of making and putting objects together as an active (versus a passive) pursuit of love. The goal of The(ir) Art of Loving is to capture the artist’s passion for true emotional connection and convey it in a way in which anyone could experience it. Ruhala believes that if his feelings are genuine enough, they will resonate even with those observing the narrative of his life for the first time.
With The(ir) Art of Loving, Ruhala invites viewers to interact physically and emotionally with the installation by walking through and around its architectural composition. He reconfigures standard 2x4 pine studs, manipulating construction codes to redefine spatial boundaries. This allows him to change the supporting structures that define space, playing with scale and using the lumber as a drawing medium. The installation’s framework consists of two bathroom walls joined at the top. Ruhala situates the viewer between the two sides of an architectural structure of a bathroom, thus creating a sense of elusiveness and abstraction. Drawing inspiration from traditional stud wall forms, Ruhala constructs cabinets and drawers as containers that house unfolding memories.
The artist also uses wax paper, a material typically associated with woodworking, as a canvas, embedding it into the structure to divide vertical layers. The colorful images visible through the semi-transparent surfaces create a complex interplay of drawing and framing, where the viewer’s perspective becomes integral to the artwork. This ambiguity transforms the experience into something akin to reading fiction—personal yet universal. However, the gravity of drawing from personal experience also means forced encounters or instances of reconciliation. By bending building codes and standards, a sense of queerness emerges, disconnecting the viewer from the space's intended function and prompting them to consider its history instead. The bathroom, a space associated with the breakdown of intimacy, transforms into a place where the viewer experiences love. As they walk through, adjusting their body in response to the artwork, and filling in the gaps with their own imagination and perspectives, the artist invites them to participate in the shared act of reception. It forms a new space that doesn't follow a predictable order.
The installation challenges the viewer to bridge the gap between personal memories and the redefined space, ultimately inviting them to reconsider the intimate connection between love, identity, and memory.