When the sick rule the world

When the sick rule the world

He ringatahi te rahi o ngā puare porowhita i kurua ki When the sick rule the world. Ka rāhiritia te kuhu ki te mahi mā tēnei kātū mātauranga – ka piko ngā matimati ki te kapu o te ringa, ka whātoro te ringa urukehu – ka whiti i te weherua, ka kori te tāreitanga. Nā reira, ka tūtaki hō tātou tinana ki tō te ringatoi tinana, me te aha ehara i te mea ko te rahi o te ringatahi noa, ko te rahi kē tēnei o tō Ruth Buchanan ringatahi, arā, he iti. He huna, he hura rānei, tā When the sick rule the world mahi: Ka mātai atu tātou ki te tāreitanga, ka mātai atu mā roto rānei i ngā puare? Ka ora mai tēnei tāreitanga mā tēnei kātū paheketanga, arā, he whakaoho i te hono o ngā tinana.

I te whakaaturanga a Buchanan i te tau 2019, e kīia ana ko The scene in which I find myself/ Or, where does my body belong?, i tū ki Te Whare Pīataata, i whakaritea te 300 o ngā mahi toi i ahu mai i te kohikohinga matua o Govett-Brewster, me hētehi wāhanga o When the sick ruled the world ki te whānuitanga o te whare whakairi toi: he arahī, he whakararu me te wero i te wheako ka riro ki te wāhi huarewa me te whakatakoto kau noa i ngā mahinga toi. He ara whāiti ka hua mai i te tū tauaro o ngā pātū e rua, e ahu ana ki tētehi whata koata. Ko hētehi atu pātū hei whakawehe i te wāhi, hei whata taonga, hei ārahi, hei whakararu i ngā nekehanga, me te tirohanga ā-karu. Ko te puare ringatahi te rahi, he pūahaaha.


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The circular holes that puncture When the sick rule the world are the size of a fist. This knowledge invites action—the curling of fingers to palm, a gingerly outstretched arm— crossing the divide the sculpture performs. And so, our body meets the artist’s, for the holes are not just the size of any fist, they are the size of Ruth Buchanan’s, which is small. Does When the sick rule the world conceal or reveal: do we look at the structure or through the hole? It is this slippage which gives the artwork its dynamic presence, for how it provokes a direct and bodily engagement.

In Buchanan’s 2019 exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, The scene in which I find myself / Or, where does my body belong?, which included nearly 300 artworks from the Govett-Brewster’s permanent collection, editions of When the sick ruled the world were placed throughout the galleries: guiding, interrupting, and complicating both the experience of the gallery space and the logic of the sprawling exhibition. Two of the screens, placed parallel to one another, formed a narrow corridor, leading towards a vitrine. Others divided space, contained objects, offered direction, disrupted movement, obscured the eye. A fist-sized hole, an open aperture.

— Hanahiva Rose, 2024