Exhibition

Recorded Live: As it presents itself — Somewhere Vague: Ryan Gander

2 May 2009 – 6 Jun 2009

Event times

Wednesday - Saturday / 12 - 5.30pm (Open May bank holiday Sunday and Monday)

Cost of entry

Admission free

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Picture This

Bristol, United Kingdom

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The third, and final exhibition in Picture This' Recorded Live season of new moving image works exploring performance to camera.

About

As it Presents Itself - Somewhere Vague is a new video installation by Ryan Gander that exploits the medium of Plasticine animation. The work brings together characters based on the comedian Spike Milligan; curator Matthew Higgs; Mrs Frances Gander - the mother of the artist; the Lumière Brothers, Auguste and Louis, who were amongst the earliest of film-makers, and a generic animator's armature that stands as the skeleton of the other characters. As viewers, we are put into the position of a spectator within a gallery, within a film and in turn within the auditorium of a theatre. There is a tongue in cheek contradiction within the action and the narration between the staged, the unstaged, and the upstaged, the directed and the happenstance. As an investigation into the notion of entertainment, the work is an attempt to look at the relationship between performer and spectator relationship and to rigorously discuss the stereotypes of performing art. Richard Briers provides a voiceover that acts as the work's narration from the perspective of the characters involved, but in hindsight - questioning the intentions of the work. This rambling, questioning voiceover mirrors our own uncertainty as spectators. The characters seem to be in search of an author and meaning, lost in a theatrical loop. The work is subtle and understated, as funny as it is unsettling. As it Presents Itself - Somewhere Vague was produced by Ryan Gander, Wonky Animations of Bristol and Picture This. It is a joint commission by Whitstable Biennale, Picture This and South West Screen as part of Recorded Live. It was first shown at Whitstable Biennale in 2008. Recorded Live is a programme of new performance to camera moving image works all exploring how performance can be mediated on film; not least by questioning what constitutes a performance, and how a film can be presented to audiences. In this season of new moving-image works ideas of performance encompass the personal and physical, the everyday and miniscule and the fantastical and fabricated.

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