the failures of modernism, reason, and basic empathy. For Line in The Sand/Highway of Death (2013–4), Ruttan created a 30-foot by 12-foot diorama of more than 600 ceramic pieces and sand. The installation depicted the aftermath of a 1991 U.S.-Canadian bombing raid on a 60-mile stretch of highway between Kuwait and Basra, which killed hundreds of retreating Iraqi military and civilians. Set low to the ground in a Chicago Cultural Center exhibition (2015), it recreated for visitors a bird's eye view chillingly akin to that of the bombing pilots. Lisa Wainwright described the piece's "horrific gestalt" as an "instance of the sublime," alternating between pleasure and horror, seduction and repulsion, and aesthetics and politics. In her "An Unmaking" works (2018), Ruttan has sought to close the gap between her damaged architectural forms and domestic life, as well as between the sites of carnage and American viewers. The series integrates rubble and shattered buildings in sculptures of typical, middle-class, Middle Eastern furnishings such as chairs, coffee tables, and dressers. The Weinberg/Newton Gallery in Chicago paired this work with the nonprofit educational organization Facing History and Ourselves for a two-month event series and exhibition called "Weight of the World" in 2018. Recognition Ruttan has been recognized with artist residencies at Wild Animal Park (Escondido, California, 2005) and Krems, Austria (2015), and an Art & Technology Residency at Wexner Center for the Arts (2004). She has received awards from the Illinois Arts Council (1993, 1996, 2002), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1997, 2000), Jerome Foundation (1981–2), and Minnesota State Arts Board (1980). Her work is in several public collections, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Arts, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Daniel Levinas Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gamson Art Collection, and University of California, Riverside. References External links Alison Ruttan official website "Artist Alison Ruttan Creates Destruction," WTTW-PBS, November 6, 2014. Bad at Sports Podcast, Episode 28: Alison Ruttan, March 12, 2006 21st-century American artists Artists from Chicago 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists American women painters American women sculptors American feminists Feminist artists American installation artists Postmodern artists School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design alumni Culture of Chicago 1954 births Living people Sculptors from Illinois Educators from Illinois American women educators American contemporary painters