Episode 4: Troy Ruffels on making atmospheres
Season 2: Tasmania
Episode 4: Troy Ruffels on making atmospheres
Still from the webisode The Weeping Tree, commissioned by the Australian Geographic YouTube channel. Image supplied: Matthew Newton
Troy Ruffels, a photomedia artist drawing on the tradition of painting and drawing, makes works that are both immersive and atmospheric. Troy incorporates the elements of fire and water into his daily routine from pre-dawn ocean swims to evening fire pits, creating a discipline for his art practice.
As a country boy growing up in Forth on Tasmania’s north-west coast, Troy’s career was launched at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Primavera exhibition for emerging artists in 1997. Since then he has continued his exploration of boundaries: through the mediums he uses or the poetic language to evoke the atmosphere of weather.
Troy lectures at the University of Tasmania’s School of Creative Art, Inveresk and is represented by Bett Gallery in Hobart.
You can see Troy’s work on our Instagram page @artdestinations.podcast.
In this episode we cover:
Finding international success after growing up in a small town on Tasmania’s North-West Coast,
How Troy’s work is influenced by natural forces like fire, floods, and shifting weather,
Insights into how technology and evolving media have influenced the artist’s creative process,
Conversation about the artist’s collaboration with poet Kristen Lang on the exhibition stone tide weeping trees,
The impact of cinema, music, and poetry on the artist’s work, and
Emphasis on the duality and flux in nature, and how it influences making immersive, atmospheric art.
Biography
Troy Ruffels is an artist and academic whose work spans over three decades. A graduate of the University of Tasmania and the University of Glasgow, Troy has spent years travelling, exhibiting, and developing his practice before returning to his home on Tasmania’s North-West Coast, where he currently lives and works. His career is marked by significant national and international recognition, with over 30 solo exhibitions including venues in Spain, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and participation in more than 200 group shows across a dozen countries. Troy has received numerous prestigious awards, scholarships, and commissions, including being a Primavera artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art, an Australian Postgraduate Scholar, an Anne and Gordon Samstag International Scholar and a Rimbun Dahan Artist in Residence in Malaysia to name a few.
Troy’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in exploring place's atmospheric and emotive qualities, particularly in relation to lutruwita/Tasmania. His current work responds to how imagination, intuition, and lived experience shape our shared understanding of 'being' within this unique environment. By examining the dualities of place, Troy's work navigates the delicate connections between humanity and the natural world, offering profound insights into our relationship with the environment. His most recent solo exhibition, "Stone Tides Weeping Trees", at Bett Gallery Hobart in 2023, continued his long-term engagement with ecology, place, climate and the poetics of atmosphere in Tasmania’s central highland plateau and lake district.
In addition to his artistic practice, Troy is a lecturer at the College of Media and Arts at the University of Tasmania and serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors at Contemporary Arts Tasmania, continuing his lifelong dedication to the arts in both education and leadership.
