Ruoru Mou

Through a multidisciplinary practice of sculpture, installation, and sound, Ruoru Mou examines labor, migration, and material culture. She reconfigures industrial forms and by-products to illuminate the complex networks and power structures embedded in production and material flows. Drawing inspiration from the Chinese diaspora communities of Florence, Italy, where she grew up, Mou uses materials such as leather, wood, glass, and ceramics to investigate the relationships between objects, labor, and power. Her work emphasizes traces of displaced labor and the processes behind material production. Central to her practice is the idea of objects as vessels that carry sound, memory, and experience. Boats, clay, and other forms act as metaphors for preserving and transmitting stories and labor. Immersive installations highlight how materials—from leather offcuts to tools—encapsulate histories of migration, labor, and industry. Mou’s work challenges conventional notions of value and production, creating poetic, critical reflections on displacement, labor, and the unseen human forces that shape both objects and environments. ...