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Ampersand

'Ampersand', the focal work in the exhibition entitled ‘Esperluette’ (28th September 2012 - 7th January 2013) at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, presented the viewer with a giant white cube, closed and impenetrable. A 'window' in this white cube enabled the viewer to observe a series of 66 individual objects, scrolling by on a conveyor belt. Some of the objects – all of which were taken from my personal collection – were made by myself, while others were consumer goods. The objects could be read as a set of clues to be deciphered, whose meaning changed according to their precise placing in the overall sequence, and depending upon the moment at which the viewer began watching the sequence. The work encouraged visitors to make their own connections between the objects, and to create their own stories around them, in order to 'solve' the associative puzzle which I had staged. Part of the Palais de Tokyo’s recurring programme Bibliothèques d’Artiste, which invites artists to display the implicit connections in their mental universe, this research foregrounded parallels between the space of the work and the place of the psyche; through the relationship between the procession of objects and the ponderings of the mind. The exhibition also included a book ‘Ampersand: Notes on a Collection’. Critical reviews included: Jian-Xing Too, ‘Ryan Gander’, Artforum (January, 2013).