Ruth Buchanan: “Dead Marble”

Artspeak

Procurement

2018

Goodweather is pleased to have been commissioned to procure several sculptural objects for Ruth Buchanan’s exhibition “Dead Marble” at Artspeak, Vancouver.

Exhibition Text
‘Dead Marble’ is an installation that stages a series of performative provocations drawing attention to the ways in which both people and architecture determine the experience of the institution. Through an audio guide, several characters—all of whom have a distinct relationship to the sculpture court—will “inhabit” the space. Each week for the duration of the exhibition, the tone of the installation will shift through the scripted audio presence of one of the seven characters: the visitor; the weaver; the plinth; the cleaner; the director; the piano; and the architect. ‘Dead Marble’ takes shape through the subjectivities of these characters, who essentially become custodians of the space of Artspeak as they set up the embodied conditions through which we experience and encounter the works within the installation. Through this contingent equivalence between characters and their respective narration, there is a defiance to comply to a singular system of interpretation or institutional perspective. Questions of how power plays out within institutions, across time and sightlines, emerge. These staged encounters broker new networks of relationships, as they draw attention to the way the audience becomes both an active agent and spectator as they move through and experience the literary and formal sculptural installation of ‘Dead Marble’.
Artspeak