The Language of the Exhibition, Never Shone, As Loose as Anything, 2010

Ryan Gander's work includes Never Shone, an architectural modification in which a puddle of water is dispersed through evaporation and wet footprints, and his ten-minute performance on various dates throughout the exhibition, consisting of a contemporary dance choreographer miming the actions of a teacher of classical ballet. It also includes The Language of the Exhibition, whereby spectators are led from a darkened space towards flickering lights produced by the screening of the film Jour de fête by Jaques Tati, which plays just out of sight. Beyond them lays an upturned Le Corbusier armchair and a large wind machine blowing in their direction.

Ryan Gander

1976, Chester, U.K. Lives and works in London and Suffolk. Gander's practice is multifaceted, ranging from video, installation, sculpture, intervention, writing, performative lecturing through to being the manager of two bands, one fictional, one actual. Using this range of actions to provoke a dialogue between the familiar and the unfamiliar, his practice weaves together countless layers of documentary records and fiction. Gander continuously seeks to reconfigure existing aesthetic conventions by restructuring their defining parameters, reinventing his own practice in the process. Gander describes his own practice as being driven by the intent to create something completely new and unexpected each time he tackles a project. Wilfully, he produces pieces that appear ill-fitting in relation to the body of work that came before them. Much of his work is concerned with tweaking common objects, situations or systems, and planting his own often inexplicable narratives within them. Together his works constitute a series of off-cuts, footnotes, by-products and marginal scribbles -a sort of vernacular aesthetics embedded in everyday systems. Gander is also known for running the non-profit space Associates (2007), which gave twelve emerging artists the opportunity to present their first solo exhibition in London. For Manifesta 8, his installations feature wind machines, mime performance and water puddles.