Ryan Gander Idea machine, 2024

Ryan Gander’s Idea machine appears on the first glance as a conceptual sculptural object with a reflecting brass surface. However, it is a shell that covers the mechanism producing its essential feature: dispensing ideas.

As many of his works, this piece combines theory, technology, and aesthetics presenting a complex narrative as a thermal receipt printer hides in the core of the Idea machine. This device dispenses Gander’s unrealized ideas for art works.

Producing them at such speed that giving them away is preferable to feeling the burden of holding onto them and realizing that he can never execute all the ideas, Gander's work is both an act of generosity and an acknowledgement of his own mortality.