Scores for Transformation

Score for Transformation (A conversation) is a dialogue between the artist Ruth Buchanan and the art historian Fiona McGovern. It took place via email after Ruth relocated from Berlin to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in late 2022 to begin the role of director of the public art gallery Artspace Aotearoa. The conversation centres their shared interest in working with museum collections and the legacy of institutional critique, and what these might have to do with the provocations, limits and potentials held in the term ‘the artist as curator’. They discuss Buchanan’s recent work as an artist and exhibition maker, while also emphasising the format of the published exchange, in contrast to the typical academic single-authored article or monograph, as means to reach a wider public.