ryan gander revolves fieldwork around london's lisson gallery

ryan gander revolves fieldwork around london’s lisson gallery
(above) fieldwork 2015, 2015
variable / 32 objects with plinths presented on a moving conveyor belt
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london

ryan gander: fieldwork
lisson gallery, london
now through october 31, 2015

for the third time, ryan gander returns to london’s lisson gallery. this latest exhibition titled ‘fieldwork’ interweaves a selection of the english artist’s new works, each suggesting some of the recurrent themes and sources of visual influence that feed his overall practice. from a revolving catalog of uniquely crafted pieces to an underground, inaccessible labyrinth of stones, each of the works presented for ‘fieldwork’ act as starting stories for the viewer to invent or complete.

fieldwork 2015, 2015
variable / 32 objects with plinths presented on a moving conveyor belt
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london

occupying the entirety of the back gallery, the titular work ‘fieldwork 2015’ opens a literal window to the recurrent touchstones that inform gander’s work. rotating around the room on a vast, walled-off conveyer belt are a collection of objects, each seemingly found but on closer inspection individually crafted. momentary views of these apparently disparate items — a baseball bat covered in nails, a pair of dead pigeons, a tortured teddy bear — are allowed through an aperture in the gallery’s wall, offering brief glimpses as they glide past. the overall effect creates a memory game of bizarre associations and through which to consider the rest of the exhibition.

fieldwork 2015, 2015
variable / 32 objects with plinths presented on a moving conveyor belt
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london

autobiographical inflections referencing gander’s own experiences and life encounters can be found in ‘preparation is everything (there will come a slowness and we should prepare for that also)’. this reflective work is composed of 365 daily attempts to mix the exact colour of the sky over saxmundham, suffolk, in acrylic paint.

similarly, gander introduces visitors to his past with the installation ‘never enough’, an intervention that infills the entirety of the downstairs gallery. a pebble beach occupies the institution basement, referring to the both seascape near gander’s home and the alleged punishment for those found guilty of the crime of smuggling — to seal up the perpetrator’s storage cellar with stones washed up by the sea.

additionally, for ‘second phone’, a giant billboard on the gallery’s public-facing façade announces gander’s phone number to all.

fieldwork 2015, 2015
variable / 32 objects with plinths presented on a moving conveyor belt
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london

(above) never enough, 2015 / pebbles / dimensions variable
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london

never enough, 2015
pebbles / dimensions variable
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london

preparation is everything (there will come a slowness and we should prepare for that also), 2015
mirror and paint / 180 x 180 x 3.5 cm
image © ryan gander; courtesy lisson gallery, london