Ryan Gander

Single channel HD video projection, sound, duration N/A. The video shows gallerist Niru Ratnam riding a bicycle in a park wearing pyjamas. The audio element consists of a voice over of Ratnam reading a press release he had written for the work following the production of the visual element of the video. The press release was written with the full knowledge that it would become the voice over for the final edit. Through this work Gander critically addresses the convention of the press release and transforms gallerist, Niru Ratnam, from unnamed writer into a prominent part of the work. Cycling around the park in his pyjamas and nonchalantly smoking, he re-enacts a scene from Julian Schnabel’s film ‘Basquiat’. Through the narrating of the press release, the video frames Schnabel’s portrayal of Basquiat as a part self-portrait rather than an objective representation of the artist’s short life. Most biographers have to compromise when articulating their subject’s motive. Here, Gander equates this with the gallerist-artist relationship at the root of the press release ritual.