Ryan Gander Can the air be held?, 2024
PVC, ink
ø 370 cm (145 5/8 in)
Can the air be held? is a giant black PVC balloon bearing the question “Can the air be held?” in large white letters.
The work represents the inquisitiveness of children who ask what grown-up minds often dismiss as nonsensical or illogical. The medium in which this sentence is conveyed, a huge balloon, invokes the playfulness of childhood and draws on Gander’s use of children’s toys as symbols of their imaginative powers.
Installed in a way to block an entrance at the artist’s solo exhibition at Esther Schipper, Can the air be held? raises the question of what the obstacle to enter the room is: The ball or our inability to engage with such feats of the imagination.
Human perception and cognition, the way humans navigate and perceive the world around them are recurring topics in Ryan Gander’s artistic practice. Gander’s works are focused on the playfulness and imagination of children, which is often more expansive and less restrictive than adult behavior, less encumbered by “reality,” facts and appearances.
The work weighs 15 kg.
Additional questions for unique commission works with questions Ryan Gander developed with children:
1. Do fish float?
2. Is red the brightest colour?
3. Can you smell fear?
4. Do blind people see in dreams?
5. Can plants tell the time?
6. Is the wind always invisible?
7. Do nuns fight?
8. What is the fifth gender?
9. Do twins have the same dreams?
10. Can you kill someone with kindness?
11. Do rocks have a smell?
COMPONENTS INCLUDED IN SALE:
– PVC balloon, air pump
– Certificate of authenticity
The work represents the inquisitiveness of children who ask what grown-up minds often dismiss as nonsensical or illogical. The medium in which this sentence is conveyed, a huge balloon, invokes the playfulness of childhood and draws on Gander’s use of children’s toys as symbols of their imaginative powers.
Installed in a way to block an entrance at the artist’s solo exhibition at Esther Schipper, Can the air be held? raises the question of what the obstacle to enter the room is: The ball or our inability to engage with such feats of the imagination.
Human perception and cognition, the way humans navigate and perceive the world around them are recurring topics in Ryan Gander’s artistic practice. Gander’s works are focused on the playfulness and imagination of children, which is often more expansive and less restrictive than adult behavior, less encumbered by “reality,” facts and appearances.
The work weighs 15 kg.
Additional questions for unique commission works with questions Ryan Gander developed with children:
1. Do fish float?
2. Is red the brightest colour?
3. Can you smell fear?
4. Do blind people see in dreams?
5. Can plants tell the time?
6. Is the wind always invisible?
7. Do nuns fight?
8. What is the fifth gender?
9. Do twins have the same dreams?
10. Can you kill someone with kindness?
11. Do rocks have a smell?
COMPONENTS INCLUDED IN SALE:
– PVC balloon, air pump
– Certificate of authenticity