Gander, Ryan
Ryan Gander is a prolific conceptual artist whose oeuvre resembles a collection of poetic responses to the world around him. His works take on many forms including publications, sculptures and performances, and they often involve second-guessing and visual or conceptual tricks, providing clues that invite the viewer to play detective in order to unravel a narrative.
His commission, As old as time itself, slept alone is part of a series of sculptures modelled on Edgar Degas’ ballerinas. Gander uses the language of figurative sculpture to create a contemporary conceptual artwork. This time the diminutive dancer lies on the floor behind a large blue cube. She is similar in scale to those made by Degas, and the blue cube acts as a cipher for contemporary art, or as Gander describes it: ‘a cartoon version of contemporary art’.
Gander is interested in how Degas’ ballerinas are almost standard issue for museums. In this series he attempts to give the ballerina a new life. He takes her off her plinth and allows her to explore the institution that had previously fixed her on a pedestal and rendered her passive and watched. But the inescapable paradox is that she is cast in bronze and will remain asleep, trapped behind her accompanying blue cube.
- Artwork Details: 101 x 113.5 x 134.6cm
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- Material description: Bronze, wood
- Credit line: © the artist.
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- Accession number: ACC19/2015