RYAN GANDER

A giant, double-rendered clock, milled in highly polished mirror-finish stainless steel. The clock rests on an enlarged digital facsimile of a rock that is arguably 4.3 billion years old, ethically sourced by geologist, Jonathan O’Neil, from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in Hudson Bay, Canada. Lying in the vicinity is a life-size stone sculpture of a domestic cat sleeping in the shadow of the clock and the rock.

Antique mirror, cold cast marble

An animatronic mouse partially visible emerging from a hole broken through the gallery wall. The mouse delivers a 9 minute monologue using the voice of the artist's 9 year old daughter, imparting a philosophical speech based on the final scene of The Great Dictator (1940) by Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, rewritten from a post-simulacrum perspective.

A pair of cartoon-like, animatronic eyes with eyelids and eyebrows are installed in the gallery wall. Sensors, activated by the viewer, trigger the eyes to go through a series of pre-programmed movements that create an endless loop of randomly choreographed expressions.

A bronze figurative sculpture of a young female ballerina resembling Degas’ dancer, sleeping on the floor of the gallery accompanied by an ultramarine blue cube and a display plinth.

An antique framed mirror covered with a dust sheet that has been reproduced in cold cast marble, the sheet has been draped to obscure the mirrors reflection as if protecting its surface.

A Wassily Model B3 chair designed in 1926 by Marcel Breuer, up ended onto its front, on top of which cast marble sits representing several inches of settled snowfall.

Three revolving postcard racks which, when viewed from certain angles, form three complete images from the multiple postcards they display; showing two artworks and a portrait of Santo Sterne.

A wall-mounted postcard rack displaying multiple postcards which create an image of the fictional artist, Aston Ernest, as a child.

A fortune-cookie slip revealing a catalytic point of departure for an action yet to be undertaken concealed from view within a painting constructed from white-washed broken glass sheets and black duct tape.

The Green and the Gardens, 2019, focused on a holistic need for a communal and public shared space. As such, Gander worked directly with the commissioners chosen landscape architects, Gillespies, to create a space that included rain gardens to ensure a natural drainage system, wildflowers to increase biodiversity and intimate spaces for groups to relax, escape and find inspiration. The artistic elements mimicked the common groups of England’s villages, featuring a series of highly realistic fibreglass sculptures of tents positioned in the landscape that lit up during the night, as well as fences, a gateway, a stile and a communal notice board.

A life-size replica of a helium filled balloon that appears to be floating against the ceiling of the gallery. The balloon is in fact made from fibreglass and finished in a high gloss black colour.

A giant, swollen, mirror-finish stainless steel version of 'Rapport de volumes' (1919) by Georges Vantongerloo in a crater as if crash landed.

A life-size figure upscaled from an animator's movable desktop armature. The figure stands in front on ann illuminated rectangle hung on a wall as if looking at a painting in a gallery.

OR SOMEWHERE BETWEEN A MODERN REPRESENTATION OF HOW A CONTEMPORARY GESTURE CAME INTO BEING, AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE PHYSICALlITY OF AN ARGUMENT BETWEEN THEO AND PIET REGARDING THE DYNAMIC ASPECT OF THE DIAGONAL LINE AND ATTEMPTING TO PRODUCE A CHROMA-KEY SET FOR A HUNDRED CINEMATIC SCENES, 2010

The gallery space is entirely covered by hundreds of simple matt black arrows all of which seem to have been shot from the side of the gallery that faces the most commonly used entrance. The arrows randomly penetrate the walls and floor, protruding into the gallery space at various angles and depths.

A marble sculpture representing a den / simple shelter made by the artist's 3 year old daughter using a full size Rietveld Cargo chair and smaller Rietveld Cargo chair designed for children.

A large sphere made up of thousands of unidentifiable shiny stainless steel components of various sizes and shapes, the distribution of which has been decided using magnetic forces.

Rendered in cast bronze and taking the form of large-scale key chains of a ballet dancer, a model of a school, and an architectural tetrapod, the sculptures are suspended improbably from the trees of Laguna Gloria. Gander, a consummate storyteller but intentionally unreliable narrator, describes his use of the key chain as a simple “vessel for communicating something of greater value, a signifier for the story.”

Part of an ongoing series of works, the key chain shapes are based on those employed in performances by Earnest Hawker, a persona of Gander’s future self. These sentimental objects suggest narratives, snippets of which come from the artist’s history and biography, while the viewer projects his or her own meanings, sparked by the works’ incongruous scale and placement. Chronologies and realities conflate, spinning with possibilities: How did these get here? Are they larger, or am I smaller? This playful interrogation of the viewer forms the nexus of Gander’s work.

Three winding steps leading to a shape resembling a door set against the gallery wall, emitting a bright glow of white light.

A series of sculptures permanently installed at Elephant Park consist of three pairs of sculptures based on working with these schools to create a figurative sculpture dressed in an amalgamation of clothes of their own choosing, as opposed to clothes suggested by function or social convention; and an abstract sculpture based on a discussion-led workshop with Ryan Gander at the end of 2021. Installing each school’s figurative sculpture and abstract sculpture together, each sculptural pair has a unique interaction between figure and sculpture, based on the artist’s interpretation and class discussion.

This project that has been developed in partnership with the South London Gallery and the Contemporary Art Society. The final works are all co-authored with a selection of Year 4 / KS2 (8-9 year old) pupils from three Southwark primary schools (Robert Browning, Charlotte Sharman and Crampton Primary) — all schools in the local vicinity of Elephant Park.

Permenantly installed in Elephant and Castle London, UK.

A 1:1 scale sculpture of a form called a Dolos, originally designed to act as a beach defence against coastal erosion, recreated in low carbon concrete. A computer model of the Dolos was treated with an algorithm that simulates snowfall. The mass of snow that accumulated on the Dolos was then subtracted from the mass of the original form, leaving a seemingly half finished or eroded sculpture, which can only be completed with the addition of snow in the real world.

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. Each piece represents a chess piece (two Kings and one Queen) and are positioned in a "checkmate" situation, yet due to the fact that all three are identical in colour and finish, it is impossible to tell which piece is the one in checkmate and which piece is on which side.

A concrete resin sculpture, commissioned by the Public Art Fund for Central Park, New York City (USA), of the ruin of the fictional statue The Happy Prince – as interpreted by the artist from the final chapter of the children’s book The Happy Prince (1888) by Oscar Wilde.

Hundreds of thousands of coins consisting of three different designs, freely distributed in a public context to be found or discovered at free will by the entire population of a city or region. The coins have been designed to act both as lucky charms, to remind the finder of the value of time and attention as opposed to solely money, but also to act as a decision making tool that can be utilised to assist with choice and spontaneity. The three coins are based on three different themes.: Pause and Action, Together and Solo, as well as Speak and Listen. 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.