Ryan Gander

The Annotated Reader is a publication-as-exhibition and exhibition-as-publication featuring 281 creative personalities responses and remarks on a chosen piece of writing.

Ryan Gander and Jonathan P. Watts invited a range of people, encompassing contemporary artists, designers, writers, institutional founders, musicians and so on – to imagine they’ve missed the last train. “Is there one piece of writing that you would want with you for company in the small hours?” With this in mind, we asked people to submit a text with personal annotations and notes made directly onto it.

With over 281 contributions collected over the last few months, we have gathered a selection of contributors including Marina Abramović, Art & Language, Paul Clinton, Tom Godfrey, Ragnar Kjartansson, Sarah Lucas, Alistair Hudson and Hans Ulrich Obrist. The annotation adds a further layer, making each piece unique and a historic record of our current times.… (mehr)

The present publication crystallises, for a fleeting moment, the ever expanding collection of Ryan Gander and the stories for which objects of all pedigree — artworks alongside coloured toilet paper – are the catalysts of. These short essays are an exploration of our surroundings, both normal and sublime, written with a steady hand and the sharp critical eye of a northern comedian cooler than Pharrell Williams.

If you get hold on texts, articles and interview featuring Ryan Gander, one word will pop-up in particular - storyteller. Through his work he always tries to narrate in form of objects or actions particular feelings or actions, pose questions and maybe sometimes give loose answers. His initial projects involved public lectures and performances, but lately it has evolved into creating articulated stories and emotions through the use of sculpture, real estate projects, architecture or (sometimes) technically complex installations. If you have seen his work for the latest dOCUMENTA in Kassel, Airflow-velocity Study for I Need Some Meaning I Can Memorise (the Invisible Pull), you are surely aware of the complexity of the questions his projects pose to the user, questioning the notions of language and knowledge, a reinvention of the modes of the appearance and creation of the artwork.… (mehr)