Celebration? Real life (2022) is an exhibition-essay. Hosted by Coastal Signs, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland with positions from Anne Boyer, Benjamin Buchanan, Ruth Buchanan, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Maya Schweizer and J.C Sturm & John Baxter. Departing from the poetry of Sturm and the 1972 work Celebration? Realife by Chaimowicz, the exhibition sets up links across disciplines, generations, whānau, and even the status of artworks to diagram a sense of life in the here and now.
Heute nacht geträumt: Pre-history – Future (2022) is an exhibition. Encompassing the
entire Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart this collection-focused exhibition is shaped around four questions:
From what point does the contemporary begin? Which documents say what? Where does my body belong? Do I
want come back? At the heart of each of these questions set within the museum-turned temporal topography
is the desire to fundamentally reconsider the paradigms under which a museum might function. Graphic Design by HIT and archiectural support by Andreas Müller.
Transition Exhibition (2022) was an exhibition and set of live events. Commissioned by Brücke-Museum, hosted by Kunsthaus Dahlem, and curated by Paz Guevra, this project crtically contextualises the over one-hundred items of cultural works collected by Brücke artist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff for the first time. The new works by contemporary artists place this collection in relation to decolonial, anticolonial, and feminist discourse and activity.
Mother Lode – Some Thoughts on 'Older Women Artists' (2021) is an essay. In this piece of wirting Christina Barton explores the trajecotry of inter-generational engagment with senior female artists. Barton places Aotearoa New Zealand in conversation with observations on the international context. The essay presents recent work by Ruth Buchanan, including 'Can Tame Anything' held at the Dowse Art Museum in 2018, as key to this discussion.
Where does my body belong? From institutional critique to infrastructural transformation Or Standards
and Mothers (2021) is a publication. It is the fist release in a new series edited by Artspeak,
Vancouver that focuses on how the commitment of artists’ to wider social movements informs contemporary
artistic practice. In this essay Buchanan explores the texturising of institutional critique, as a
practice and method. This booklet includes the republishing of work by Anne Boyer and J.C. Sturm.
Evacuation Tapes (2020) is an online publication. This collection of writing explicitly folds out
from a selection of poems by J.C. Sturm, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant Māori women
writers of the twentieth century. Sturm’s poetry is placed in relation to new work by Anna Gritz, Sarah
Hopkinson, Hanahiva Rose, Sriwhana Spong and Buchanan. Graphic design by HIT with Fuchs Borst.
Uneven Bodies (2020) was a symposium and is a reader. The symposium bought together diverse
approaches to collections in order to recalibrate the ways in which they are shaped. The content from
the symposium is gathered together in the reader and offers a template for how we can imagine collecting
for the future. Contributors include: Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Wanda Nanibush, Dr. Clémentine Deliss, Gabi
Ngcobo, Lana Lopesi, Christina Barton, and Megan Tamati Quenelle. Graphic design by HIT.
The scene in which I find myself / Or, where does my body belong (2019) was an exhibition.
Working into one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s preeminent collecting institutions, the Govett-Brewster Art
Gallery, it examined (contemporary) collection politics. Placing the mechanisms used in constructing
collections per se under a sharp scrutiny, the exhibition sat with the paradox that a collection is,
that lived experience is.
A garden with bridges (spine, stomach, throat, ear) (2019–ongoing) is a permanent outdoor
architecture. Initiated by the European network Neue Auftraggeber / New Patrons, Buchanan is
commissioned by an unemployment community centre and an elite high school to develop a garden located in
the rear of the community centre located in a former Hitler Youth house. The design works towards
barrier-free access to the garden and aims to create a space for a mutable ‘third group’ that takes into
account the need for privacy and withdrawal from the other as much as it encourages meetings amongst all
possible users.
Lexicon of Infinite Movement (2019) was an exhibition. On the occassion of a large retrospective, the work of Charlotte
Posenenske was placed in dialogue with the practices of Buchanan and Dutch artist Yeb Wiersma. Buchanan’s work
included the installation of five silk curtains throughout the museum, in both public and private zones;
regular scripted tours to these five locations led by museum security guards; and a major essay included
in the exhibition guide.
Bad Visual Systems (2016 / 2018) was a two-part exhibition. In the essay 'Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privlege of Partial Perspective' by Donna
Haraway she describes self-identity as a bad visual system because it assumes a single point of
orientation, she suggests an alternative: “the split, contradictory self is the one who can interrogate
positions and be accountable, the one who can … join rational conversations and fantastic imaginings
that change history.” The first iteration included work by Judith Hopf and Marianne Wex, the second
iteration was awarded The Walter’s Prize, Aotearoa New Zealand’s preeminent award for contemporary
artists.
Hopkinson Cundy / Hopkinson Mossman (2010–2019) was a gallery. Located in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington,
they represented the work of Ruth Buchanan during this period.
