There’s a stark division within Ruby Dickson’s canvases. Her images split her subject around the eyes, an act of disrupting the gaze – both what we look at, and what looks back at us – severing mind and body. As you stare at these paintings, immaculate recreations of photographs, featuring head-to-toe haute couture, and get the sense that there’s something far-off and distant about the figure staring back at you.
That figure is Kim Kardashian, a public figure who seemingly needs very little introduction. But Dickson’s paintings of her, which recreate images of Kim snapped by the paparazzi – turn this recognisable figure on her head.
