Ryan Gander | in The Bakery: I'm at 4%

Annet Gelink Gallery is pleased to announce I’m at 4%, Ryan Gander’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery.

For this exhibition, Gander filled the space with objects not generally classified as ‘art’. Whilst most objects on view are reminiscent of a gallery or museum space, they are usually overlooked. It is not the first time that supposed ‘non-art’ is displayed in an exhibition space, however, I'm at 4% is more a proposition for a new way of thinking than a comment on the much-discussed distinction between art and non-art. Gander shifts the focus to the parts that make up an exhibition instead of hiding them. As such, he enables an inventive and associative way of interacting with the works that draw on the viewer’s imagination in their quest for meaning.

Upon entering the gallery, the visitor is greeted by an enlarged page from a visitors comment book hanging on the wall. This page of comments rendered in enlarged handwriting by different authors is taken from a previous exhibition of the artist.This way, the book is highlighted as a proof of participation at a moment in time. In the main gallery space, hand-made wine glasses are dispersed over the floor, like leftovers from an opening party. Some of them are rendered as two compounded vessels, giving the visitor the impression that they are suffering from double vision. Usually disregarded as mere residues, in their new setting the glasses become a marking solidified in history. Other seemingly loose ends are scattered around the space, such as an animatronic cat sleeping on the floor; mirrored steel plates that are chapters of an as yet unpublished book of poetry; a backlit billboard displaying a collection of illustrations with views from windows, taken from books found within the artist's library; or a window meant to reveal the artist’s studio but is covered in frost.

In The Bakery, the lecture video Loose Associations (Wretched '20) is on view. Gander has been creating these lectures annually since 2000. The work is exemplary for his associative way of thinking, as Gander skillfully and humorously guides the narrative from subject to subject, reflecting on a broad range of cultural events.