But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped...

But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair)

Ka hua mai ngā mahi toi a Ruth Buchanan i te wāhi ngaro ki roto ki te hanganga o te whare whakairi toi. Kei te takiwā tonu te wāhi ngaro – he mata, he ārei, he whāriki, he koata – he horopaki huatau – ko te ara matua o tētehi whakaaturanga, hei waitohu i te mahi toi. Ahakoa te aha, hei whakaatu tēnei i tō tātou hononga ā-tinana ki te whare whakairi toi: ko tōna nekehanga, otinoa ko tō tātou māramatanga ki tēnei.

Ka āhei hoki te tinana ki te whakatā i rō But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair). Ko te tikanga o ‘Leg, leg’ hei whakaahua i te nōhanga e tāpirihia ana ki ngā waewae raima e rua, ā, he papa wahie kākāriki kei runga i ngā waewae. Ko te kākāriki nei he kano kua kaha whakamahia e Buchanan, ā, i tapaina e ia mo tōna hononga ki ngā ratonga whakahaumanu ora. “Koirā te kākāriki o Ruth,” taku whakapae i taku haerenga ki tētehi hōhipera me taku kaha kite i taua kano ki ngā wāhi katoa.

Kua whakatairangahia a But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair) ki tō Evacuations tapes taha (i Te Whare Pīataata hoki), kia whai wāhi ki te whakarongo ki te kaponga ā-waha, 18 haupū te roa. He tono a But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair) ki te tūhura i te rongo ā-tinana ki te papa: he whakapātaritari atu i te takiwā e wāia ana tātou, ki te mahi whakaari i te huarewa – tirohia, erangi kaua e pā – he whakatau i a tātou, he whakararau me te āta whakarongo hoki.


—


Ruth Buchanan’s artworks often take the form of interventions into a gallery’s architecture. These interventions can be spatial—a screen, a curtain, a rug, a vitrine—or they can be conceptual—the organising logic of an exhibition, an artwork label. Either way, they inform our physical engagement with the gallery: how it is moved through, how it is understood.

But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair) offers a place for the body to pause. Leg, leg: the chair is mounted on two concrete legs, with a green wooden seat resting above them. It’s a green Buchanan has worked with repeatedly, so named by her for its association with health care services. “That’s Ruth’s green,” I thought to myself on a recent trip to hospital, seeing the colour everywhere.

But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair) has previously been shown alongside Buchanan’s Evacuation tapes (also in the Govett-Brewster collection), where it provides a place to sit while listening to the 18-minute long audio recording. But it’s one way to describe agency. And desire: I’m trapped (leg, leg, bust, rush, step, stair is an invitation to explore the feeling of body on surface: challenging all these negotiations which we are used to performing in a gallery space—look, but don’t touch—by asking us to just place ourselves down, settle in, and listen.

— Hanahiva Rose, 2024