Ryan Gander’s new exhibition I’ve Fallen Foul of My Desire will be on view at Camden Arts Projects from 15 October 2025 to 18 January 2026. In this new body of work, Gander invites visitors to explore the fluid nature of time, value, and imagination. Curated by Hala Matar, the exhibition examines humanity’s obsession with accumulating “things” and its impact on our perception of time.
The exhibition brings together new and recent sculptures, animatronics, and installations, investigating how we perceive, distort, and internalize time. Gander explains, “The artworks remind us that we are responsible for our own destiny, agency, and time—factors far more important than what society and tradition dictate. The power is in your imagination; you have the ability to change your perception.”
At the center of the exhibition is The Storyteller: The sense that you are a part of a flow of a thing (2025), where an animatronic harvest mouse emerges from a hole in the wall to deliver a philosophical monologue in the voice of Gander’s daughter. Reflecting on identity, commodification, and possibility, the mouse acts as the exhibition’s conscience, whispering to visitors about the importance of imagination.
Visitors encounter works that challenge and fragment perceptions of time and value. In the courtyard, the monumental black sphere Why am I so distracted? (2025) may go unnoticed by passersby absorbed in their phones. In Everything is Titled, a mosquito hovers on a cake stand, caught in the moment between life and death. The vending machine work Equivalent Economies and Equivalent Means (2018) questions how time, value, and memory intertwine, once offering either €10,000 in banknotes or stones collected by Gander and his children, both priced equally.
Inside the gallery, The Graphite-cast Bit Part Player (Balthazar, Merchant of Venice; Act 3, Scene 4) (2020) leans against the walls, recalling the building’s past as a drama school where young actors once waited for their fleeting lines—now transformed into a space filled with art.
On the balcony, Chronos Kairos, 01.01 (2025), a double-offset wall clock, creates a subtle glitch between two realities, inviting reflection. Nearby, two stray cats, Charlie (2020) and Smoky (2020), wander freely through the space, seemingly oblivious to the exhibition and its visitors.
Gander’s exhibition offers a thought-provoking experience on distraction, mortality, value, and how imagination can transform our perception of time. Visitors are encouraged not only to engage with the works but also to reflect on their own sense of time and imaginative potential.
