Ryan Gander
The well-known British Conceptual artist Ryan Gander (born 1976 in London, UK) makes associative works that are always guided by a dry sense of humor. His strongly autobiographical practice includes video installations, objects, spatial interventions, photographs, talks, and artists’ books. Recurring themes include artistic authorship, the work’s genesis, and the investigation of language as a system of signs that is spoken, visualized, or written, and the potentials and limitations thereof. In “The New New Alphabet” (2008), Ryan Gander worked with a font called “New Alphabet” that was designed by Wim Crouwel and is regarded as illegible. Gander’s wooden letters worked as additional elements that make the font clearer and more legible through superimposition.
Gander combines seemingly disparate elements from the history of art and culture and enriches these with facts and fictions, thus translating them into his own world view. The installation “Ftt, Ft, Ftt, Ftt, Ffttt, Ftt,…” (2010) refers to Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, who had a serious fall-out over the significance of the diagonal in a picture. The intensity of the fight between the two founding fathers of Concrete Art is made apparent through the hundreds of arrows stuck in the floor at an angle. At the same time, Gander links these to the battles of the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace (c. 1270-1305), also known as Braveheart.
His works often seem simple but are actually very complex. They often cannot be classified easily, due to their deconstruction, unveiling, and dissipation of narrative strategies and meaning-formation. For example, the thrown-together lamp sculptures “A lamp made by the artist for his wife: 44th, 47th, 49th, 50th attempts” (2015) refer not only to the long tradition of using everyday materials in art (ready-mades), but also to the creative process itself, and very personal aspects. In his works, Gander reflects on art’s discursive potential, perception, and reception. His works cannot be decoded through quick observation; rather, they can and must be understood as fragments of a complex artistic universe.
Dominique von Burg
Gander combines seemingly disparate elements from the history of art and culture and enriches these with facts and fictions, thus translating them into his own world view. The installation “Ftt, Ft, Ftt, Ftt, Ffttt, Ftt,…” (2010) refers to Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, who had a serious fall-out over the significance of the diagonal in a picture. The intensity of the fight between the two founding fathers of Concrete Art is made apparent through the hundreds of arrows stuck in the floor at an angle. At the same time, Gander links these to the battles of the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace (c. 1270-1305), also known as Braveheart.
His works often seem simple but are actually very complex. They often cannot be classified easily, due to their deconstruction, unveiling, and dissipation of narrative strategies and meaning-formation. For example, the thrown-together lamp sculptures “A lamp made by the artist for his wife: 44th, 47th, 49th, 50th attempts” (2015) refer not only to the long tradition of using everyday materials in art (ready-mades), but also to the creative process itself, and very personal aspects. In his works, Gander reflects on art’s discursive potential, perception, and reception. His works cannot be decoded through quick observation; rather, they can and must be understood as fragments of a complex artistic universe.
Dominique von Burg
Works by Ryan Gander
