Can Tame Anything

Can Tame Anything

He tānga tēnei ki te pātū, e kīia nei ko Can Tame, nā Ruth Buchanan me tōna tungāne, a Benjamin. Kua pania ki tētehi taiangiangi māwhero, te kano o te kiri o Ruth, ā, ko tōna hanga e rite ana ki ngā puke, ki ngā wāhanga tinana kua kōpanihia.

Ko tētehi āhua, he rite ki tētehi whakaahua whānau, arā, ko te āhua reka o te tēina me te tuāna. Ko tētehi atu āhua, e whakahua ana i te hītori o te ira auaha o te wahine - e aro pū ana ki ngā tānga a Le Corbusier i te kāinga o te kaihoahoa, o Eileen Gray i ngā tau 1930. Heoi anō, e whakaari hoki ana te mahi i te tiro hōmiromiro ki te whare whakairi toi tonu - he whakamana tonu i te whanaungatanga o ngā mahi haumanu me te mahitahi i a te whare whakairi toi me te ringotoi hoki. Mā Benjamin hei peita i te taonga nei, i te wā ka whakatinanahia anōtia.

I whakatinanahia tuatahitia i Te Whare Pīataata nei i te whakaaturanga e kīia ana ko The scene in which I find myself… or, where does my body belong? i te tau 2019, he mahi i whakamātautauria e Ruth Buchanan te pahekotanga o te kohikohinga taonga o te whare i roto i te rima tekau tau o tōna ake hītori, hei rapa i te pūtaketanga o tōna kaha ki te whakatere i te whare i hēnei rangi.

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Can Tame Anything is a wall-painting by Ruth Buchanan and her brother Benjamin. Painted in a thin wash of pink the shade of Ruth’s skin, the form recalls rolling hills or body parts close-up.

In one sense, the work is a family portrait, drawing upon a shared intimacy and creativity between siblings. In another, the work recalls a history of women’s creative agency—alluding to the uninvited murals Le Corbusier painted in the home of architect Eileen Gray in the 1930s. But the work also enacts what the artist terms an ‘intimate’ scrutiny of the gallery itself—demanding an ongoing relationship of care and cooperation between institution and artist. Each time the work is realised, Benjamin is required to paint it.

This work was first realised at the Govett-Brewster for the exhibition The scene in which I find myself… or, where does my body belong? in 2019, for which Ruth Buchanan examined the evolution of the gallery’s collection over its fifty-year history to locate where power has been concentrated, and the ways power informs how different bodies, different people, inhabit and navigate the institution today.

— Text developed for Te Hau Whakatonu: A Series of Never-ending Beginnings (5 August 2023–11 February 2024), curated by Taarati Taiaroa