"Dust And Its Settling"

The way technology changes art's production will always cause much unease. Technology means starting the process of extinction of something always held dear. It also keeps artists from getting complacent and forces redefinition, which is exciting to some and terrifying to others. John Ruby's images capture both the scintillation of excitement and the chaos of terror. "Collapse" is an apt image for the cosmic rubble out of which a discernible, coherent galaxy will emerge, although it would be a mistake to wait in anticipation: something worthwhile is already occurring.

Ruby's psychedelic guitars are not too disconcerting: Warhol has sufficiently prepared us for them. But there is something unsettling about the abstract pieces, even though we have Pollack. They seem terribly immense and incomprehensible like a singularity in physics. A human cannot grasp it, though a human created it. In "Untitled" and "Flow," Ruby hypothesizes what that might follow after the turmoil: something transparent, peculiar and fluid.

-Eugene Hwang