An Invaluable and Never Faulting Remedy

Re-launching our PeasPark work, we're delighted to announce that Natalia Ruhe will be contributing new work for our siteboard. Planned to coincide with our exhibition last August - Soda Jerks, with collaborators Phillip McCrilly and E Boyfield - we were unfortunately thwarted by anti-social behaviour on the site.

But we're back in business, rebuilding the damaged growing beds, planting bulbs and gearing up for a Spring programme of environmental events and creative workshops.

The forthcoming celebrations of both St Brigid and Imbolc on 1 February are the perfect time to launch this work. Natalia's imagery explores the mythology around sparkling water as remedy, connecting it to the history of ancient wells and healing springs and Irish diaspora in the United States.  St Brigid herself is revered for her connections to nature, peace, and social justice, and is said to have performed the miracle of turning bathwater into beer! 

About the artist

Natalia Ruhe (b. 1999)

(She/her)

(US/UK)

An Invaluable and Never Faulting Remedy, Billboard, Digital Print, August 2025

For the PeasPark Site, Natalia contextualises her research on soda water in Ireland, making reference to the relationship between Irish immigrants in the US and their belief in the magical powers of soda water. In the 19th century, Irish immigrants in New York found great solace in soda water, mistaking it for the same water that came from their holy wells in Ireland. They believed that the bubbly quality resembled their ‘magical’ mineral waters. They used and understood soda water differently from their non-Irish counterparts in the US, seeing it as both healing and nostalgic, using it in an attempt to cure all manner of ills; physical, emotional, social and economic resulting from diaspora and emigration. The billboard acts as an ode to this story comprising of three images; an Irish holy well, a holy water bottle, and an archeological image of a soda water bottle found in the majority Irish immigrant area of Five Points in New York City from the 19th Century. The title also acts as an invitation to the viewer to consider what a remedy is to them, or what object or belief they project a remedial desire onto.

Natalia Ruhe is a London based designer as well as a researcher, host, and cook. Her work manifests as publications, photography, workshops and sound, with an emphasis on collaboration. She is interested in the interaction between people, food and objects, and what this reveals about capitalism, society and its desires.