Not Quite Resolved

If you click on the heading “sculpture” on Jean-Claude Ruggirello’s website, you’ll come across almost quaint, pedestal pieces like Chiens (2008) made from kitschy readymade porcelain dog statues enwreathed in a tangle of wire, as well as monumental sculptures like Toi Nuage Passe Devant (2006) comprised of two kayaks bent like origami on tall stands. Categorized with sculpture you’ll also find King Kong (1998) an installation of two automated projectors that swivel on stands and send rectangles of projected light back and forth across a curved wall. Principe Actif (2004) described as an electro-vibration projection system, appears as a projection of two interlocking geometric shapes that create a split screen shape on the wall. The day I sat down with Ruggirello in his studio for a generous visit, I was able to see some of his smaller-scale sculptures, and maquettes for sculptures, as well as works on paper, but we spent most of our time talking and looking at documentation and at some of his video work on his computer. I asked about two of his early works that intrigued me when I consulted the copious files he had previously emailed me, His Master’s Voice (1984) and Deux Jours (1984), which he also categorizes as sculpture on the website. The documentation of the performance His Master’s Voice shows several distinct scenes, reminiscent of images in a photo-novella, a genre Ruggirello has experimented with. In one image, we see Ruggirello from the waist, holding a walkie-talkie to his mouth, and in another we see a young man wearing swimming goggles, crouching on a red taped mark on the brown carpet…
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