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Locked Room Scenario

‘Locked Room Scenario’ was a complex large scale exhibition that featured a group of fictitious artists called the ‘Blue Conceptualists’. I created this group over a number of years, among them Spencer Anthony, Mary Aurory, Aston Ernest and Santo Sterne, and they allow me to play out different artistic stereotypes and practices. Fictitiously, the ‘Blue Conceptualists’ rose to prominence in the 1970s, and in the exhibition ‘Fields of Meaning’, their work was seemingly being re-examined. ‘Locked Room Scenario’ was an exhibition, which housed the exhibition ‘Field of Meaning’; the exhibition, ‘Field of Meaning’ was essentially a meta exhibition within ‘Locked Room Scenario’, one which was closed, with artworks still waiting to be de-installed: Using methods adopted from stage design, ‘Field of Meaning’, was hidden from view, trapped within a room behind locked doors, where visitors were forced to peer through half-obscured doors, windows, frosted glass and letter boxes to catch a glimpse. The research uses pastiche to critique 1970s artistic movements and legacies, and simultaneously adds a layer of meta-critique on the practice of art criticism itself. The intention of ‘Locked Room Scenario’ was to allow the viewer to imagine an alternative reality, one detailed and multi-layered enough to merge the viewer’s own experience. Extending its reach beyond the boundaries of the gallery, a developed pretext to the exhibition included web-based records and archival materials, featuring the ‘Blue Conceptualists’ and their fictitious oeuvre. Coverage of the project included: Sean O’Hagen, ‘Ryan Gander: Locked Room Scenario’, The Guardian, (28th August 2011).