In her works, Ruth Buchanan brings together different formats and media – sculpture, video, text, photography and performances – to create precise spatial images in order to reveal changes within the found materiality of space. In this respect, her approach is similar to the artistic approach of her compatriot Kate Newby, who invited her to respond to her exhibition at GAK.
In Buchanan’s works, writing is often an indirect access to her choreographed, temporary spatial arrangements. This is also true in Lying on rocks, sitting in windows, standing on stairs. Through text and physical movement, Buchanan appropriates spaces in order to rearrange, shape and define their character. In Lying on rocks, sitting in windows, standing on stairs, she will apply this approach to Kate Newby’s exhibition “Crawl out your window” and to its usual mediation in the form of a guided tour. By physically taking possession of the GAK premises, a tour consisting of different protagonists – abstract, social and representative – is created.
Ruth Buchanan (*1980 in New Zealand, lives in Berlin). Last solo exhibitions: “Lying Freely”, Casco, Utrecht (2010); “Several Attentions – Lying Freely Part III”, The Showroom, London (2009); “Circular Facts – Lying Freely Part II”, “If I Can’t Dance Tonight…”, Frascati Theatre, Amsterdam (2009). Group exhibitions in 2010: KUB Arena, Kunsthaus Bregenz; “Charming the snake of reason”, Enjoy, Wellington; “Monumentalism”, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; “From Dusk Till Dawn”, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
A performance to the exhibition “Kate Newby. Crawl out your window”.