Ruth Ige
The worlds within the blue
The worlds within the blue Ruth Ige
Paintings, poems, prose
Dear readers
This is Ruth Ige. Just want to thank everyone who is taking time out of their busy schedule to read this book. I want to also say thank you to those who have supported my practice, to those who understand my vision, and to the new individuals who are just intrigued. This book might not give all the answers, as I like to keep a bit of mystery to the work, but I hope it gives a better understanding.
This publication is structured a bit differently. In a sense it is structured around my perspective and thinking with poems, painting commentary and other elements. I hope this publication will become a window through which you can get a glimpse at the worlds within worlds that I have been exploring, building and creating through painting. Hope you enjoy. Virtual hugs to everyone. Have an awesome day y’all.
Many warm wishes
✕○
Ruth Ige
Worlds within Worlds
The endless unfolding
The shifting spheres between iridescent doors
The luminous unknown arriving before me
The unravelling thread overflowing
Flowing
Moving through spiralled streams and corners of towering mountains
Refracted edges concealing hidden ways
I leap forward beyond the orbit
To see what is there
A thousand sunrises
A thousand moons up here
A portal
A dawning
Blue tesseracts unform
Expanding beyond
Beyond
Realms once known
Sitting woman (unknown year), 2021
Acrylic on canvas, 100 × 100cm
The foundational and the experimental elements
The foundational elements of my practice are my blue palette, the black figure and exploring blackness. Those are the things I build my paintings upon. Though my palette stays the same I am constantly exploring different aspects of blackness that I am intrigued with. So, at times the works and brushstrokes might be more minimalist and the next works, they might become more maximalist and brushstrokes looser and freer. The topic within the sphere of blackness might also change. It depends on what I am exploring, researching at that present time and what I am feeling intuitively.
Portrait (year 2022), 2020
Acrylic on canvas, 120.5 × 90cm
Esteemed, 2021
Acrylic on canvas, 152.5 × 76cm
Concealing and revealing:
The conversation between abstraction and figuration
I began as an abstract painter. I do see myself as an abstract painter who is painting figuration: an abstract painter who is translating the figure. However, I do not like to choose one over the other. Both are equally important to me. There is a conversation between the two art forms that I want to occur within each painting and my practice in general. I feel that even within art history and the art community, there is pressure to choose one over the other. Exploring and embodying both these important forms of art is important for me from the art history standpoint whilst exploring blackness. Furthermore, as humans, as we navigate space and the world we are constantly revealing and concealing aspects of our selves. This is also quite an important thing that we do as black people. We conceal aspects of our self when we feel unwelcomed or when we want to keep certain
aspects of our culture sacred. By using abstraction and figuration I can visually and conceptually show the practice of concealing and revealing that we all do to a certain degree as humans and more specifically as black people. In the painting The woman with the healing gift aspects of the figure and surroundings are concealed and aspects are revealed. There is a blur between the figure and her surroundings. A visual, spatial conversation is occurring in a way that describes the mystical interaction between her and the space she occupies. In each painting how much is concealed or revealed is different. There are paintings where more aspects of the figure are revealed, or more is concealed. In The woman with the healing gift more is concealed than revealed. She is quite a mystical woman and her gift is quite sacred, and so there is deep protection you see visually.
The woman with the healing gift, 2021 Acrylic on canvas, 152.5 × 76cm
The introvert, 2021 Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 61cm
Future spring, 2021
Acrylic on canvas, 119 × 80cm
Perseverance, 2021
Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 75cm
In a place between two dimensions, I saw freedom personified. I saw that, in both her waking and sleeping, she would have recurring dreams and visions – dreams of liberation, hope, wonder, sorrow, joy and justice. A mothering entity, I could see her watching, hoping and longing for the best for the black diaspora and black individuals in their navigation of life. Her heart ached as she saw the injustice inflicted through the ages. I saw her cheering and rising to her feet when she witnessed movements of resistance. She would wail and grieve like a mother who lost her child every time a black life was lost or wrongly taken. She would visit people in the night through their dreams, giving words of encouragement, but also ideas and tools to fight against systems of oppression. At times she would appear as an apparition of light and wrap her arms around those who were disheartened. She would give spiritual gifts shaped like flowers and bestow mantels of blessings on those who needed them.
I imagine her still waiting, hoping for her dreams to come to pass. These paintings are from her perspective. They are a small glimpse into her inner world. Mostly portraits – through her eyes – of how she views these figures. Through her gaze of upliftment, empathy, compassion and sorrow these paintings are formed.
This is also an exploration of the many facets and expressions of freedom within the black community across the world. The need for freedom that has been fought for throughout the decades. The recurrence of that dream appearing over and over again throughout history. That dream manifesting itself in movements, communities, people, ideas and creativity.
These paintings explore the long-held tradition of black imagination and black speculative fiction as an access point of emancipation, and its importance as a tool of healing, escape, resistance, empowerment and self-care. This body of work is a love letter to the black diaspora. Prelude: Freedom’s recurring dream
A dream of the great day of unity
In the cool of the day like sounds of chimes and birds flying above walls and mountains the sound of strong wind rushing through leaves and angel wings there appeared a great sight a great light hovering above the fields of flowers
I saw a family gathered with skin of midnight like an onyx stone glimmering in the moonlight
A multitude
more than the oceans and seas black hues and golden streams from different times and places
All there together dancing, laughing, weeping, healing, being held by the light
Revered, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122cm
Melodies, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 153 × 102cm
Accessing freedom through speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a powerful tool. People often belittle the power it holds and see it as something that is just for fun. Through speculative fiction I can access freedom that might not be present, and create beyond systemic constraints and walls. I am able to access limitless possibilities, ideas and ways of thinking, seeing and approaching complex issues. It holds a rich history of being used to speak on injustices, practice self-care, and empowerment within the black community. It was also used to access freedom that was denied to them and imagine better worlds. By utilising it I am honouring those who came before me and carrying on that rich tradition. Through it I can show the multiplicity of blackness that has always been there.
In the painting And she had the power to
command the light, we see this black woman accessing a power she always had. Fully embracing her power. Fully standing in that power after centuries of being dismissed and belittled. Here we see her breaking through those constraints and being who she truly is and not what has been demanded from her.
Also drawing from precolonial beliefs and systems can seem quite sci-fi and speculative. So, that aspect is strongly intertwined into the speculative parts of my work. Personally, I used to write sci-fi and fantasy stories since I was little. It has always been a tool of empowerment and joy for me and at times an escape. Exploring both the escapism and empowerment qualities of speculative fiction also draws me to it.
And she had the power to command the light, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 120cm
An evocation
The evocation of the unknown
The evocation of healing
The evocation of power
The evocation of worlds
Abundance, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 100cm
An angel for those who have suffered injustice, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 240.5 × 180.5cm
Songstress, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 120.5 × 80cm
A gentle soul, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 84cm
A gift (to weather the storm), 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 61 × 51cm
And she appeared at your side (Freedom)
And that day you called out to the void
You called out to the sea beside you
And to the moon above you
You called out to distant realms
And she appeared at your side
Like an apparition
She placed a handful of flowers Within your palm
And said Keep this near
Pull it within the chambers of your heart Guard its light
May it strengthen you
When your spirit is weary
A vision at dawn, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 240 × 180.5cm
The painting The connection has a visual duality that I often use in my practice. I love both abstraction and figuration equally. So, there is this innate attention to the arrangement of form and colour you would find in an abstract painter, but also the reverence of the figure and its spirit and story you would find in a figurative painter. My paintings move in and out of figuration and abstraction continuously within each work. Almost like a shapeshifter continuously morphing at each glance. At first glance you might think The connection is solely abstract painting and the black figures are just patterns or are part of a tree. However, The connection has these figures, showing diasporic connections, community and my hope for more unity within the black community. I love exploring that duality where something is both things. The more you look the more something is revealed where your glance is the conversation, and the painting responds by revealing more to you.
The connection, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 90cm
Power, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 61.5 × 51cm
The
lament
Freedom
Are you a ghost?
Are you a mirage?
Or a childish dream
A luminous fantasy
Glittering one moment in the sun
And gone during a moment of rain
I have heard stories of your elusive ways From elders and ancestors before us who called on your name who spent most of their life looking for traces of you.
Looking for the proof of your existence.
Abundance
May your words build cities
May they tear down hate
May rivers and streams flow from their depths
Nourishing the earth
Multiplying
Sustaining all that is love
May your words build worlds
Places of belonging
Places of rest
Dwellings of change
May your words
Never be hidden
Let them be bold
Let them be the haven
Where freedom can reside and grow
Spilling beyond the boundaries
Don’t hide your glory, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122cm
May you know your worth, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 100 × 100cm
There are times when I need a break from painting a portrait. This was one of those times. It helps to change up the rhythm of things. It allows me to stir up the creative juices. Particularly when I want to paint something more abstract, but still have the black figure as the focus. At times I paint arms or hands holding flowers or objects or reaching out. I love flowers. Absolutely love them. Flowers hold so many different meanings depending on the type and the culture. They say all that needs to be said. This painting was part of Freedom’s recurring dream where this figure received a bouquet of flowers from Freedom the mothering entity. In my prelude for the exhibition freedom gave spiritual gifts shaped as flowers. It is quite a healing painting for anyone who has ever felt alone or overlooked. It is just a nod to the viewer and me, like ‘hey someone sees you’.
A gift (to know you’re not alone), 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 61.5 × 51cm
She lived beyond the borders of time (immortal), 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122cm
Opera singer (year unknown), 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 153 × 101.5cm
The loner, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 62.5 × 51cm
all things dear, 2022
Gathering
Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 100cm
And from your heart may cities grow, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 101 × 76cm
Untitled, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122cm
Songstress (year 2024), 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 140cm
The oracle, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Made of water and light, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122cm
The solace of the night
A familiar friend
An ever-present silence
Beckoning
Beckoning us to rest
A listening ear
Liquid black
Black like us
Beckoning
Beckoning us to rest
You reach out
With hands outstretched forward
Beckoning
Beckoning us to rest
Your dark skies
A comfort for us
Beckoning
Beckoning us to rest
Power II, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 91 × 122cm
Power III, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 71 × 91cm
By the moonlight, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 91 × 122cm
Dreamstate, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 140cm
You are enough, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 101.5 × 152cm
Faint memories, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 71 × 91cm
At the gathering, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 150cm
Guardian Angel, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 140cm
A person of great courage, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 152 × 122cm
will be ok, 2023
A foretelling, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 153 × 122cm
It
Acrylic on canvas, 137 × 84cm
The abundance of life, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 152 × 122cm
Dancing beneath the morning sun, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 152 × 122cm
The premonition of hope and not of sorrow, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 152 × 122cm
A vision within a dream, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122cm
Sacred waters (tears)
When words cannot bear the burden
These tears become sacred waters
Spilling beneath my feet
Falling to hollow ground
Rising around me
And I let go
And float above its surface
And swim beneath its streams
Oh, these sacred waters
Tears from you and me
Tears of those before us
Ebb and flow by the trees
Moving through the memorial stones of our longings
And the monuments of our dreams
Bring forth new life
Oh, you sacred waters
Prelude:
And you are of the heavens and of the earth
I have been observing ideas of the ethereal and how society views things that are ethereal, holy, heavenly, otherworldly, royal and beautiful as things void of blackness and black people. Blackness has been systematically categorized as not having the characteristics or innate ability to be ethereal both visually, historically and spiritually: as a visual colour and as a race. And you are of the heavens and of the earth is a declaration, but also an exploration. The body of work weaves speculative fiction, history, art history, traditional culture, precolonial belief, future imaginings and my own created mythologies. It explores blackness from otherworldly beings to the everyday person and those who hover between multiple worlds and dimensions.
And you are of the heavens and of the earth
And you are of the heavens and of the earth,
Beloved of the light
Beloved of the water
Beloved of the spirit and all its wonder. You are the light revealed The light released
The light unwavering Uncontained
Moving through woven realms, dimensions, universes, and worlds You are worthy of the earth and all its blessings You are worthy of the heavens and all its honour.
Angels, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 91 × 91cm
Angels with blue tinged feathers
Stand by the place of a new dawning
They watched this light
And all its ways
It was not the sun
Or the moon
Or even the stars
They would bow and honour it
And when the light grew dim
When it seemed like it was dying
Being pulled under the sludge
Under the murk
They would call it forth
And give it strength
And their voices in one accord
Pulled it from drowning
What was this light they were guarding?
A place with no name, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 90 × 90cm
Queen from the 7th earth, 2024
Oil stick, soft pastel and West African indigo pigment on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Protected by heaven, 2024
Acrylic paint and binder, oil stick and West African indigo pigment on canvas, 152 × 76.5cm
Everyone from the past, present and future could live together here. Life nor death could separate them. Nor the borders between the heavens and earth.
Garden, 2024
Acrylic ink and paint, and oil stick on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Queen from the 7th earth (part 2), 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Woman with bouquet dress, 2024
Acrylic, oil stick, soft pastel and West African indigo pigment on canvas, 152 × 76.5cm
Untitled 1, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 10 × 10cm
Untitled 2, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 10 × 10cm
Elder, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 10 × 10cm
What happens when you liberate time from itself and free it from its own knowing?
Visitors, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Seven Yoruba women with the gifts of healing, foresight and teleportation, 2024
Acrylic, oil stick and charcoal on canvas, diptych, 122 × 122cm; 122 × 183cm
And when midnight befell us then you appeared, 2024
Acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 122 × 122cm
The seer with beings of great knowledge, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 183 × 122cm
Garden in the clouds, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Woman with two flower guides, 2024 Oil stick and West African indigo pigment on canvas, 60 × 60cm
Discovering the gift of flight
And it weighed on your chest
The constraint
The lack of change
The stagnant sorrow
At times
You could feel it on your shoulders
Mundane
Sluggish gnawing frustration
And so, you ran And ran
And did not look back
You ran till your lungs collapsed open You ran till your own shadow detached from your frame
You opened your arms wide
And unleashed your heart towards the void And sang out
You closed your eyes
You picked up speed
Swinging your arm fervently And when you opened your eyes
You had ascended above
Garden (year 2047), 2024
Acrylic, charcoal and oil stick on linen, 102 × 102cm
Mystic, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 140cm
Untitled, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 140cm
Healing, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 152 × 122cm
Decisions
, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 150 × 150cm
Poet in a garden, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, 140 × 140cm
far, 2025
Somewhere
Acrylic paint, acrylic binder, Ugu dried leaves, Utazi dried leaves, Uziza dried leaves, dried Ewuro/Onugbu (bitter leaf) and Zobo leaves on paper, 64.7 × 50cm
Pre-colonial
And we knew who we were Scholars of our own lands
Stewards of the soil and all it brought forth In tune with its rhythm
And with its ways
Knowledge passed down Wisdom from our elders
Wisdom from the skies
Wisdom from the waters Honoured in our midst
The oil
The adornment
The bronze
The clay
Our words
Our perspectives
Our songs Were also of the heavens
We were also of the heavens
The poetic notions of blue
To some, blue is just blue. It is just that everyday colour of the sky you gaze at, whilst sitting in the car on the way to the mundane. To others it is just that sad cold colour, moody, thunderous and sombre.
Yes blue is just that everyday colour of the sky, but it is also that same sky at night. Velvety blue black and mystical. A vast universe unknown to us. It is the oceans and rivers that surround us giving life to things that give us life.
Yes it is sadness that gives voice to sorrow and oppression, but it is also joy and life that gives birth to new things. A cleansing and washing away of old ideas and systems that are not built for all. A renewal of things, but also a rediscovery of things buried and brought in by the tide.
It is comfort and meditation. A learning to slow down and really look. To pause and reposition. To live within the unknown and be comfortable there.
To give immortality to fleeting moments and take shelter within its embrace. To dance within deep wells and stand under the waves of calm.
At times it is silence that hovers. A silence that leaps and spins around canopies of hidden things. Unearthing a strange atmosphere where you could almost see silhouettes of angel wings. Melodies of blue ascending and descending in a fury of brushstrokes.
Yet it is heritage and culture. It is the indigo dye of the Adire fabric of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Regal and beautiful blue patterns bearing stories and blessings adorned on the bodies of a nation like sapphire stones set in a crown..
Blue is the colour I build my worlds in, where flashes of various colours make their brief appearances. Where the black figures I create are allowed to be free and be themselves. They roam between dimensions of history and fiction. Hidden and surrounded, but seen within the safety of these havens. It is a language I have made my own.
The shimmering blue (year 2050)
Beyond the trees down there
Stood the shimmering blue,
The deepest blue
My eyes had seen
Pulsing
A pulsing blue
The oceans walking
The skies above come down to greet me
It slowly made its way
Pacing itself with the sound of the wind
Charging the air around it
Waves upon waves of light
Poured from its being
And as it stood before me
It said nothing
But I felt its empathy
And with a second glance It disappeared
Blue (colour that breathes)
Oh under the embrace of the all knowing
That is the colour blue,
There before the emergence of all things
Carrier of sacred realms and histories
Language and symbols hidden within
Cycles
Life
Birth
Death
Resurrection
Reincarnation
Eternity
Portals to ancient waters
Doorways to the heavens
Protect us from evil
And bring forth your peace and your mercy
As we walk through uncharted realms
Give us courage in the face of hate
To lift our heads high
And let us rest in the deep wells of cerulean
And make homes in the concaves of your eternal
Perspective
Look again
See what is beyond
The surface is not what it seems
Under the soil
Are the roots of a future garden
And flowers still grow
The flowers that bloomed beside the ruins
Nourished from the tears I cried
I held them tightly
A monument so fragile
So small
And though they Will soon wither away
They remind me that
Though there is despair
Beauty is there
Still emerging
The shoreline of time
And they stood at the shoreline of time
Where the seas of the past
The seas of our present
And the seas of things to come
Overlapped at this shoreline
And a group of seers
Stood at the mountain overlooking these waters
And called out
May we know more!
May we not be bound by time!
And a door of light opened up
Before them
And I saw them enter into that light
I thought I knew the depths of you (blackness)
I thought I knew the depths of you, Your joys Your fears Your victory Your pain
We cried tears together We laughed We sang
And danced through circumstances My dear friend.
I thought you were like a mountain still,
You are a mountain
But one day I saw you change into a bird You flew above the clouds and hovered And I saw you spread your wings What is this?!
So amazing!
And as I turned to speak
You become an ocean Dark Brilliant
Carrying the unknown
And I watched as you turned into a multitude of things
You became everything of the earth
And everything of the heavens
And everything not known to us
And everything of light
And everything of power
And everything of spirit
And everything of wonder
What is beyond even the future?
This page and overleaf Installation view, Freedom’s recurring dream, Stevenson Johannesburg
Installation view, And you are of the heavens and of the earth, Stevenson Cape Town
In the studio
Bottom
Bottom
Top left & right Dried Nigerian indigenous leaves, fruit and spice in studio
Centre right Uda and dried Ewedu leaves
left Bitter leaf and Utazi leaves
right Dried Efirin leaves, dried Uziza leaves and Aridan
Bottom
Bottom
Top right Close-up of Zobo leaves with acrylic paint
Centre left Ugu dried leaves, Zobo dried leaves, Ukwa
left Bitter leaf and acrylic binder
right Making paint with a mixture of Ugu, Utazi, Uziza
Top Collection of slides of Ilé-If`e . artefacts
Bottom right West African indigo pigment (Philenoptera cyanescens)
Top left Explorations
Top right Explorations with dried Ugu leaves
Bottom left Explorations with Ewuro/Onugbu (bitter leaf)
Bottom right The making of Woman with bouquet dress
Top left Ruth Ige with work in studio
Top right The making of Woman with two flower guides
Bottom left Explorations
Bottom right Explorations with blue spirulina and Nigerian dried leaves
Top Ruth Ige in her studio
Bottom Studio detail with vintage African sculpture, painting exploration, painting from art school, container of West African henna and baobab leaf powder sourced from Nigeria and a bag of Vivianite pigment stones
Biography
Ruth Ige was born in 1992 in Ilé-If`e . , Nigeria, and lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Auckland University of Technology in 2016.
And you are of the heavens and of the earth, her first exhibition in Cape Town, took place in 2024, following Freedom’s recurring dream, her gallery debut in Johannesburg (2022). Other solo exhibitions include Acts of rest (with Esther Ige) at Season Aotearoa (2025); The poetic notions of blue: A haven at McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2025); Between Two Dimensions at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles (2022); The poetic notions of blue at McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2021); A Place Apart, a two-person show at City Gallery, Wellington (2020); and Traces of Secrecy, RM Gallery, Auckland (2017).
Ige has been selected for the 36th São Paulo Biennale, Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice (September 2025 to January 2026). She has participated in group exhibitions at Bode Gallery, Havana (2024); Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland (2024); Auckland Art Gallery (2024); Andrew Kreps, New York (2024); McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2020); Karma, New York (2019); Ngutu Kaka Gallery, School of Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology (2019); The Vivian, Matakana (2018); and Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland (2017); in addition to Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2021-24).
She is the recipient of the 2025 Rydal Art Prize presented by Te Uru Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, with a solo exhibition upcoming at that gallery in 2026.
© 2025 for works and texts: Ruth Ige
Catalogue 99 August 2025
Design Gabrielle Guy
Photography Mario Todeschini, Nina Lieska, Earl Abrahams, Esther Ige, Ruth Ige
Printed by Tandym, Cape Town
With thanks to Holly Peterson for her support
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