Ruth Beer’s interdisciplinary artistic research is informed by the social sciences and humanities within the expanded field of contemporary art and media. Working across forms and media that include sculpture, experimental and documentary video, woven structures/textiles, and sound, her research-creation practice engages with issues of cultural and ecological impacts of resource industry expansion within culturally diverse communities—in particular, rural Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Canada’s northern regions. Recent SSHRC-funded research-creation projects as Principal Investigator include Trading Routes: Grease Trails, Oil Pipelines (2013-2015) and Catch and Release: Mapping Stories of Cultural and Geographic Transition (2009-2013). Ruth’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in national and international museums and galleries including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, The Reach Museum, Bellevue Museum WA, and Nordic House, Iceland.
