Contemporary artist Brie Ruais has unveiled a striking new clay sculpture titled "Traveling with the Wind, West, 130lbs" at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), showcasing her unique artistic process that literally incorporates her own body weight into the creative work. The piece represents a fascinating intersection of conceptual art and physical performance, where the artist's 130-pound frame becomes an integral tool in shaping the final sculptural form.

Ruais's innovative approach involves using her entire body weight to manipulate and compress clay materials, creating organic forms that capture both movement and mass in a single artistic statement. The sculpture's title directly references both the directional force applied during its creation and the artist's exact weight at the time of production, making the work deeply personal while maintaining universal artistic appeal. This method transforms the traditional relationship between artist and medium, as Ruais becomes both creator and instrument in the sculptural process.

The piece exemplifies Ruais's broader artistic philosophy of incorporating chance, gravity, and physical forces into her work, allowing natural processes to influence the final outcome while maintaining artistic intentionality. Her technique involves pressing, rolling, and manipulating clay using her full body weight, often in repetitive motions that echo natural phenomena like wind patterns or geological formations. The resulting sculpture bears the literal impression of these forces, creating texture and form that would be impossible to achieve through conventional sculpting methods.

"Traveling with the Wind, West, 130lbs" joins NOMA's contemporary art collection as part of the museum's ongoing commitment to showcasing innovative artistic practices that challenge traditional boundaries between performance, sculpture, and conceptual art. The work invites viewers to consider the relationship between human physicality and artistic creation, while also exploring themes of impermanence, natural forces, and the artist's physical presence in their work. The sculpture stands as both a record of a specific moment in time and a meditation on the broader forces that shape both art and life.