Ryan Gander
dal 12/3/2009 al 2/5/2009
Segnalato da
12/3/2009
Ryan Gander
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
This "stuttering exhibition in two parts" will gather new works created by the artist during his stay at Couvent des Recollets in Paris; it is held simultaneously at gb agency. Blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, Gander assembles seemingly disparate objects, actions and texts to develop his own narrative systems. Characterized by conceptual rigor, visual simplicity and allusive text, his works probe the processes of emergence and the mechanisms of perception entailed by the work of art.
A double exhibition in collaboration with gb agency, Paris.
gb agency and Kadist Art Foundation are pleased to announce a solo exhibition of Ryan Gander (b. 1976, lives and works in London), held simultaneously in both spaces. This "stuttering exhibition in two parts" will gather new works created by the artist during his stay at Couvent des Récollets in Paris from January to March 2009.
Blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, Ryan Gander assembles seemingly disparate objects, actions and texts to develop his own narrative systems. Characterized by conceptual rigor, visual simplicity and allusive text, Ryan Gander's works probe the processes of emergence and the mechanisms of perception entailed by the work of art. Installations, photographs, performances, publications
and press inserts are his means of following up a train of thought concerning art's discursive potential and its transmission systems. His practice, which makes extensive use of language and work with other artists, aims at "making the invisible visible" and providing the "possibility and preconditions for things to happen".
Playing with different processes of revelation, apparition and disappearance, the works presented in his exhibition raise questions related to portraiture: how to represent or try to define someone and particularly the figure of the artist (in the broad sense of the visual artist, writer, architect, urbanist, designer, magician...), from his - real or imaginary - role in history and current society to his social representation and his private image. These concerns are also brought up through pieces particularly linked with notions of authorship, ownership and appropriation. The worlds of art - their codes and their languages - are incessantly put into perspective with characters and stories invented by the artist. Spread out over both exhibition galleries, Ryan Gander's works provoke constant shuttles between these real and imaginary worlds, until their indetermination.
(...)
RG: Yeah. Maybe what all these things have in common is belief. The lucky charms in Absorbing the sights and the sounds, 2009, and Absorbing the sounds and the sights, 2009, are totemic for example. When you look into the gallery through the window and you see the invigilator through the rain on the window (in the work You can wander off in time and space, visit a place you once knew, make love to a woman you loved…, 2009) you are participating in an overly romanticised scene, but you have to believe because it is just a set. It’s a construct not reality. And with the Alchemy Boxes, you have to trust the artist’s motivation to have actually filled them with the objects described… so trusting and believing are maybe the linking factors.
And there’s a kind of moral aspect also, isn’t there? A self-portrait of you can also be one of an artist. In the Alchemy Boxes and in other pieces, there is also the idea of a failure. The failure of art, of urban planning, of architecture… maybe a kind of critique of creativity? Is there any sort of criticism in this exhibition of what an artist can achieve, of the artist’s limits?
RG: Well, I didn’t think of it this way… You know there are so many novels which feature a writer because writers know the lives of writers and this exhibition seems to be quite a lot about disclosing the methodology of making art, so that the spectator is partly responsible for the work. Spectators have to share my belief and they have to suppress their disbelief to be able to engage with the works. So maybe people that already come in with a stigma won’t get anything from it. So if there is a critique, maybe it’s a critique of a bad spectator.
A non-curious spectator.
RG: Yeah. A lazy viewer possibly.
That’s why we’re making this interview.
(...)
Kadist Art Foundation is a private foundation initiated in 2001. It is dedicated to promoting contemporary art through the constitution of an art collection and the organization of exhibitions and residencies in its space in Paris. Kadist's intention is to be actively involved in the promotion and international dimension of contemporary art. By means of these various programs, Kadist manifests its support to a group of artists who define together its artistic identity.
Image: Ryan Gander, Christmas according to..., 2008, mobile en aluminium, dimensions variables
Opening at Kadist Art Foundation friday, march 13, from 6 to 9pm
Opening at gb agency: Saturday, March 14, from 4 to 9pm
Kadist Art Foundation
19 bis - 21 rue des Trois Frères - 75018 Paris
ouvert du jeudi au dimanche de 14h à 19h et sur rendez-vous.
Accès : métros Anvers (ligne 2) ou Abbesses (ligne 12).