Visual artist and Princeton Hodder Fellow (2019-2020) Ryan Gander conducts a tour of his latest exhibition, Natural and Conventional Signs, inside his studio-cum-gallery, Solid Haus in rural Suffolk, England. Hosted by Lecturer in Visual Arts David Reinfurt, this conversation was originally recorded on February 9, 2021.
Every time I went to show the work, the world would pause because of the pandemic. And this gave me a privilege of time that I don’t usually allow myself.
– Ryan Gander
“There are in fact probably four or five incarnations or iterations of this exhibition,” said Gander. “Because every time I went to show the work, the world would pause because of the pandemic. And this gave me a privilege of time that I don’t usually allow myself.”
ABOUT THE WORK
Natural and Conventional Signs is an exhibition in which Gander presents a selection of new works directly guided by his research at Princeton and made during a period of reflection while the world paused amid a global pandemic. Inside Solid Haus, he has assembled a show in which the works have duality in meaning and utility; subverting the signs, tropes, and markers seen in the everyday world to shine new light on how we position ourselves in relation to the values of time, money, opportunity, attention and privilege.
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
Photography by Ryan Gander's Studio. Courtesy of the artist. © Ryan Gander
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Artist and 2019-20 Hodder Fellow at Princeton Ryan Gander. Photo by Tom Mannion.
RYAN GANDER is an artist living and working in Suffolk and London. He has established an international reputation through artworks that materialize in many different forms from sculpture to film, writing, graphic design, installation, performance and more besides.
Through associative thought processes that connect the everyday and the esoteric, the overlooked and the commonplace, Gander’s work involves a questioning of language and knowledge, a reinvention of the modes of appearance and creation of an artwork. His work can be reminiscent of a puzzle, a network with multiple connections, the fragments of an embedded story, a huge set of hidden clues to be deciphered, encouraging viewers to make their own connections and invent their own narrative in order to solve the charade with its many solutions, staged by the artist.
Gander studied at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL and the Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, NL. He was awarded the 2007 Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts, in 2006 won the ABN AMRO prize of the Netherlands, in 2005 he was short listed for the British art Prize ‘Becks Futures’ at the ICA in London and won the Baloise Art Statement Prize at Art Basel, in 2009 he was awarded the Zürich Art Prize.
