Fuego/ Fuga
Emmanuela Soria Ruiz
Opening Reception: Friday,March 7th, 2025| 6-9pm | Free-To-Attend
Friday,March 7th, 2025 – Sunday, April 13, 2025
Presented in Gallery 1
About the Exhibition
They had finished telling their stories, but still the Minyades persisted in their labor, offending the god Bacchus and profaning his festivities. Suddenly, invisible drums disturbed them with a hoarse rumble. The sound of a deer horn echoed, bronze cymbals clashed, and the scent of myrrh and saffron filled the air. Reality began to surpass the incredible—their looms turned green, and the tapestries hanging around the house sprouted leaves in a vine-like manner. Some transformed into grapevines; threads became vine shoots, and from the warps grew tendrils, everything turning purple like clusters of grapes.
The day had ended, and that moment arrived—the time of day that could be called neither darkness nor light, but the threshold between indecisive night and lingering dusk. Suddenly, it seemed as though the house shook. Greasy torches flared, illuminating the space with red flames, and the air howled with false images of imagined beasts.
The sisters fled in panic through the smoke-filled house. Spreading through its many rooms, they tried to escape the fire, seeking refuge in the shadows. But as they ran, a membrane stretched across their smaller limbs, enclosing their arms in delicate wings. The thickening darkness kept them from understanding why they had lost their former shape.
No feathers lifted them, yet they held themselves aloft with translucent wings. When they tried to speak, only high-pitched, almost imperceptible sounds escaped their mouths—sharp complaints in the form of faint screeches. From then on, they avoided the forests and frequented houses instead. Hating the light, they emerged only at night and took a name inspired by the twilight hour.
About the Artist
Emmanuela Soria Ruiz is a Philadelphia-based multidisciplinary artist and educator whose practice spans sculpture, video, installation, and performance. Her work explores the embedded hegemonies within personal histories, mythology, literature, and architecture, examining how these narratives shape our understanding of identity and collective experience. Beyond her studio practice, she is interested in alternative pedagogy, and currently serves as co-curator of Teaching at the End of Times, a Vox Populi initiative that fosters grassroots education in Philadelphia.
Her work has been exhibited at venues such as Vox Populi, Pentimenti Gallery (Philadelphia), EFA Project Space (New York), Los Angeles Contemporary Archives, Portland Contemporary Art Center, Kunstraum Leuphana (Germany), and F2 Gallery (Madrid), among others. She has participated in residencies such as at Tabakalera Museum and the Institute for Postnatural Studies (Spain) and ACRE Projects (Wisconsin). Emmanuela holds a BFA from The Cooper Union and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.
