Birth build shift (2022)

Ro Robertson

Classification:

Moving Image

Materials:

Single channel video

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society through its Special Partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation, supported by Cathy Wills, 2022/23

Scheme:

Partnership with Henry Moore Foundation and Cathy Wills (2018-)

Ownership history:

Purchased from Maximillian William, London by the Contemporary Art Society, through its special partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation, supported by Cathy Wills, December 2022; presented to Leeds Art Gallery, 2022/23

Relationship:

Maximillian William, London Leeds Art Gallery Cathy Wills Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds and Much Hadham

Ro Robertson’s practice spans sculpture, drawing, photography and performance to explore the boundaries of the human body and its environment. An overarching theme throughout their work is the idea of a ‘raincoat layer’ of the body, as borrowed from lesbian and trans activist Leslie Feinberg’s novel Stone Butch Blues (1993). This is concerned with the space between the inner landscape and external forces, and how one can be protected from the other.

Birth build shift is a video that draws on the energy of the tidal zone to traverse the terrain of the queer body. Moving from the shoreline to a cliff crevice, the forces of erosion, movement of the tide and shifting of rocks dissolve the boundaries between body and landscape.

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