Ruth Owens’ Untitled #1, study (maroon series) imagines a future shaped by maroon histories—those enslaved Africans and Creoles in the Americas and Caribbean who refused captivity and created autonomous communities in remote swamps, mountain refuges, out-of-the-way islands, and dense forests. In these precarious landscapes they relied on mutual support and a reciprocal relationship with the natural world, whose gifts and protections sustained their survival.
While grounded in the past, the work is firmly situated in the speculative realm. A nude Black figure moves through swamp islands, her body unmarked by historical costume so as not to signal a specific era. The nudity is not eroticized; instead, it foregrounds spiritual and mystical dimensions as she wears an animal mask that affirms kinship with wild creatures and evokes a mythic connection to the more-than-human world.
Courtesy of the artist
This work is framed.
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