I am a multimedia artist currently investigating the relationships between earthworms, labor, and the mythos of the American landscape amidst ecofeminist and ecocritical theories. This presentation explores my ongoing explorations of the lifeworld of the earthworm as I navigate notions of “invasion” through sensory investigations of both ecological and cultural landscapes. I will present not only the parallels between nonnative earthworms and immigrant labor, but describe how this leads to problematic notions of belonging and ownership in both natural and social contexts. I will unpack multimedia projects such as "Worms on the Green" and "Zone of Loss," which delve into the umwelt of earthworms through sound-based research and the role of immersive experiences in understanding nonhuman lifeworlds. These works, created in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, investigate the connections between animal labor, eco-colonialism, religion, and our relationship to the underground. Additionally, the presentation will discuss the ongoing photo series "The Invaders," which addresses inherited identity erasure and immigrant assimilation. By repurposing 19th-century portrait photography conventions, this work challenges the visual iconography of "nativeness" constructed during periods of increased immigration and nationalism.Through these artistic explorations, the presentation aims to provoke discussions on the systems of influence affecting human and nonhuman bodies, their relationships to labor, nature, and burial, and the broader conflicts surrounding place-based belonging and ownership.
Lauren Ruiz is a research-based multimedia artist interrogating perceptions of nature, authoritative systems, and their complex intersections with class, labor, and identity. Drawing from diverse sources such as historical data, scientific journals, climate fiction, and biblical texts, she creates immersive installations, digital soundscapes, web-based projects, and multimedia sculptures. Her work seeks to understand and challenge perceptions of identity within unseen environments, examining spaces beyond human perception to decipher socioeconomic disparities, ecological crises, and religious and political systems in both human and nonhuman lifeworlds.
Lauren Ruiz's studio practice celebrates the slippage between digital and analog realms, confronting liminality, invisibility, and otherness. By balancing extensive research with traditional art-making techniques, she offers intellectual and sensory examinations that illuminate and complicate our understanding of how we relate to our bodies, the earth, and concepts of ownership in the postnatural environment. Her projects often explore themes of containment and adaptation, particularly in relation to Latino experiences of land ownership and belonging in the United States.
Currently, Lauren Ruiz is exploring interiority across multiple domains, including subterranean environments and the human body. Her work questions what is buried, kept, mined, extracted, and taken—and who or what is doing the taking. She has presented her projects at institutions such as the Latvian National Museum of Art and UC Berkeley, and has been a resident artist at the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Women’s International Study Center. Lauren Ruiz is represented by Marquee Projects in Bellport, NY.
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