IN THE STUDIO : RYAN GANDER
BY ELIZABETH FULLERTON
BRITISH ARTIST Ryan Gander is an ideas man . They are his métier and material , not just because he is a conceptual artist but also because he has an insatiable , childlike curiosity about everything . Arriving before Christmas at Gander ’ s studio in a picturesque village in Suffolk , northeast of London , I was eager to peruse his legendary “ ideas wall ,” having seen the floor-to-ceiling expanse of white typed sheets on a television program . However , Gander was in the process of building a new space , and the wall had been dismantled . But he photographed it with myriad props beforehand , turning it into the subject of a series of artworks .
Gander ’ s work encompasses a wide range of forms , from sculpture ( life-size figures made of artist-model armatures , or animatronic eyes embedded in the wall ) and wall-hung pieces ( mirrors draped in bedsheets made of marble ) to books , fictional characters , concrete poetry , and fashion . He has produced limited-edition sneakers with fake mud on the sides and dresses made from postal sacks . Despite this diversity of mediums and styles , themes recur often , including the relationship between spectator and spectacle , parallel realities , incongruous collisions , and access and accessibility , which are especially pertinent for the artist , who uses a wheelchair . A keen storyteller with a love of puzzles and intrigue ,
Gander offers the viewer economical clues to kindle the imagination . For example , he paints portraits and self-portraits but exhibits only the palettes , whose daubed pigments yield no clue as to the sitters ’ identity . He had several glass or mirror palettes strewn around the studio .
Gander has also turned viewers into detectives hunting an elusive group show , made children ’ s forts out of marble , and presented vitrines that turn opaque on approach . At Documenta 13 in 2012 , Gander ’ s work consisted of nothing but an almost imperceptible breeze wafting spectators through the gallery . He prefers to deal in the creative potential of absence rather than the satiety of presence .
Gander was born in 1976 in Chester , northwest England , and earned a BA in interactive art from Manchester Metropolitan University . Between 2000 vand 2004 he completed postgraduate studies at the Jan van Eyck Academie , Maastricht , and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten , Amsterdam . He has exhibited extensively and lives between London and Suffolk with his wife and two daughters , from whom he takes frequent inspiration .
This spring Gander has solo exhibitions at the Cc Foundation in Shanghai , the National Museum of Art ,
I need some meaning I can memorise , ( The Invisible Pull ), 2012 . Exhibition view : Documenta 13 , Kassel , 2012
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