, Raphael Ruz, home

Exhibition

LOCULOCU

In the early 2000s, Raphael Ruz and Jolyon James worked together as LOCULOCU, investigating a modern, digital cubism at large scale and with exquisite precision, minting hyperfocal lenses through which to view the world.

01

Infant Self

2002

Infant Series challenges the unattainable and fetishised image of children in popular culture. It borrows from the hyper-styled baby portrait, where children become unwitting props in strange, plush parental fantasies, and identity and sex become void.

Self-portrait as an infant in a butterfly costume, dark ground.
Self-portrait as an infant with flower motif, dark ground.
Self-portrait as an infant curled in a white padded suit over a bed of turquoise glowing coins.
Self-portrait as an infant in a brown ruffled dress with a high halo of ruffled fabric, before a rusted textured wall.
Self-portrait as an infant in a rust-red ruffled costume, framed by an orange collar of terracotta pot fragments.
Self-portrait as an infant on the back of a huge snail on a giant fingertip, antennae on the head.
02

6:15

2004

This series was the first made at multi-focal scale. At three metres wide, each work was crafted from individual elements, remixed and procedurally expanded into hundreds of micro variations to fill the scene at a 2.5:1 aspect ratio, so the picture holds its detail as the viewer steps closer.

A woman cross-legged before a dense hedge of pruned rose bushes, a white ute parked behind, against a grey background.
A lone figure sitting amid a cityscape of giant, colourful Rubik’s cubes, against a grey background.
03

GreyNation

2005

GreyNation examines spirituality through the lens of quantum physics. The large works open a window onto the intangible landscape of cyberspace, a world fraught with paradox and disembodied mythology, and question the myth of a rural Australian identity in one of the most urbanised countries in the world. Finally, the series celebrates the digital realm, recognising that to reflect the boundless dimensions of a digital age, we need to look beyond traditional photography.

A figure in black standing before a large street-art mural made of beads, depicting a lakeside scene with boats, trees and buildings.
A cityscape of tall buildings built from colourful Rubik’s cubes, under a dark and stormy sky.
Two parrots with human eyes and beaks and green flowing feathers, on the ground before a barren tree under a cloudy sky, with smaller green birds flying near the tree.
Stylised birds with human eyes and hands flying above a large nest of toothpicks and red sticks, against a grey background.
A chain-link fence coated in turquoise plastic, against a solid grey background.
A figure in a colourful racing suit lying on the ground after a crash, a black helmet nearby, beside a yellow barrier and a track wall painted with a map of the earth.
A child running behind a chain-link fence in front of a graffitied brick wall, with a large dark winged creature flying in the sky above.
Pink birds with long tails flying over a city street, with a graffitied wall and a train behind them.