Ryan Gander
Since 2003, Gander has produced a body of artworks in different forms, ranging from sculpture, apparel, writing, architecture, painting, typefaces, publications, and performance.
[7] His work is not invested in any single medium or style, he has cultivated a "non-style" that enables him to pursue ideas across many traditionally understood artistic media.
This approach is exemplified in his major commission with Artangel titled Locked Room Scenario (2011),[8] in which the visitor enters a totally designed office space in a former trading depot where they are invited to solve the mystery of a group show of fictionalised artists, including their work, to which they are denied access.
[8] The work It Came out of Nowhere, he said staring at an empty space (2012)[9] is a Comme des Garçons document wallet made collaboratively with the artist Jonathan Monk.
The series of works "A lamp made by the artist for his wife" (2013)[12] are ad hoc combinations of products available from most hardware stores to produce a functioning item of furniture.
[18] Gander is a wheelchair user with a long-term physical disability,[19] a severe brittle bone condition which hospitalised him for long periods of time as a child.
Whilst I accept that some people might argue that this information is irrelevant, I would like to think that the fact that Ryan uses a wheelchair does – at least – have some bearing on my subsequent understanding of his work.
"[22] In recent years, Gander has felt compelled to address his disability in order to correct other people's perception of his exceptionalism as a wheelchair user.
[26] This concrete resin sculpture presented the ruin of the fictional statue from the final chapter in Oscar Wilde's children's book The Happy Prince (1888).
[26] In 2012, Gander was commissioned to produce Escape hatch to Culturefield,[27] situated within a wooded area of the Karlslaue Park, Kassel, Delaware, as part of dOCUMENTA 13.
[28] In 2018, Gander produced two public artworks, the first sited outside BALTIC gallery, Newcastle,[29] titled To Give Light (Northern Aspirational Charms).
Each element featured three links of mooring chain attached, implying a nautical functionality as well as alluding to trinkets on an oversized charm bracelet.
[33] The piece will be based at Scarborough Castle for 10 years through 2032, a period that scientists indicate as being "crucial in reducing carbon emissions before global warming hits a tipping point and becomes irreversible.
Laying within the space was banned furniture and detritus including carpet tiles, shop fittings, wall fixtures, upturned bins, fire extinguishers, discarded betting slips and a pile of unopened mail.
Hundreds of thousands of coins consisting of three different designs, were freely distributed in a public context to be found or discovered at free will by the entire population of a city or region.
In addition, the coins carry mottos within their designs, such as ‘Time is your greatest asset’ and ‘Let the world take a turn’, both of which are often repeated by the artist's father, highlighting the dichotomy and value between doing and not doing, a true exercise in agency and change.
The artist's first permanent piece of public art in London was created through a series of workshops with children from three local primary schools, with the works now available to view in the two-acre park in Elephant & Castle.
During the workshops, led by Gander and the South London Gallery education team, the children explored possibilities for their futures together, and engaged in place-making activities relevant to their personal, local, and global contexts.
[37] Other public artworks include: Things just happened to him (2024) Zoo Atlanta, Grant Park, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;[38] Our Long Dotted Line (or 37 years previous) (2021) at Space K, Korea;[39] The day to day accumulation of hope, failure and ecstasy – The zenith of your career (The Last Degas) (2017),[40] exhibited in the gardens of The Contemporary Austin Commission (USA), in late Autumn, 2018; Because editorial is costly (2016),[41] a giant, swollen, mirror-finish stainless steel version of "Rapport de volumes" (1919) by Georges Vantongerloo in a crater as if crash landed exhibited during the Okayama Art Summit (JP);[42] Dad's Halo Effect (2014),[43] three polished stainless steel sculptures initially conceived by the artist's father when he worked at General Motors in the 1980s, and based on parts of the steering mechanism of a commercial Bedford truck, re-imagined by the artist from his father's verbal description; No political motivation (2011), a faithful reproduction of the revolving New Scotland Yard sign constructed to display the words 'THE WORLD S FAIR', incorrectly typeset with a half space between the characters 'D' and 'S' – meaning the sign could be interpreted in one of two differing ways, as an advertisement for an event or as a political slogan.
In 2016, Gander also collaborated with Watts on "general studies" at OUTPOST, Norwich,[48] a "service" that offered artist-designed Airbnb rooms available to rent cheaply during the British Art Show.
[48] In 2020, Gander founded Solid Haus, a new Kunsthalle-like contemporary art space situated in rural Suffolk, two hours east of London.
Situated within his studio complex, Solid Haus made positive use of an era of lockdown with an intention of hosting impromptu projects by both emerging and established artists.
[53] That same year BBC Four presented Ryan Gander: The Idea of Japan,[54] taking him 6000 miles east of his Suffolk studio, to investigate how Japanese visual culture is closely linked to a special relationship with time.
[5] however, despite raising funds, the project was cancelled in 2015 due to a combination of factors, chiefly the bureaucracy of dealing with the county council over the purchase of the building, and the presence of Japanese Knotweed,[57] which meant insurers could not offer indemnity against the site.
