If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

Main content

Ryan Gander: Locked Room Scenario

This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk

Ryan Gander's Locked Room Scenario purports to be a group exhibition in a London warehouse. But as you walk through the show, you might come to realise that the entire show has been made up by the artist, from the works of art attributed to the "Blue Conceptualists," to the building itself, to a note lying on the floor or the taxi waiting outside. Gander creates an environment in which you become a key performer.
Created by Tate.

Want to join the conversation?

  • female robot grace style avatar for user Lena Lindström
    Wow, this concept almost seems like stalking ()! You, the visitor, leave the exhibition, thinking you're back in the 'real world' but in reality you're still a part of the artists master plan. Spooky! ;) According to you guys, are there any ethical concerns in this piece of participation art?
    (3 votes)
    Default Khan Academy avatar avatar for user

Video transcript

my name is Ryan gander and we're here in a project called locked room scenario and when visiting an exhibition within this project called field of meaning and field of meaning is an exhibition by seven artists Spencer Anthony Mary Rory raised a while VV n kyo Aston Ernest Tubb a furrier in Santos stone you may have heard of some of them though they're commonly known as the blue conceptualist seeeeee and in my mind Santos like the epitome of the bad conceptual artist very flashy neon signs very cheap one liners work that's very thin and an unsubstantial in his counterpart Aston Ernest is I mean I love askins work and when I think about me and the work that I make as an artist I'd be really happy if I if I'd achieved what Aston has achieved he's a much much much better artist than I am it makes me slightly jealous the overall projects made up of a number of artworks and narratives and devices and although we're in a physical environment and people may interpret the architecture to be the work the architecture is actually only twenty percent of the work and things happen to the spectator of the visitor when you visit this project before you even get here and months or maybe years after you leave here there's probably 150 possible encounters that could happen if you find a sheet with a dinner plan seating plan on it on the floor here or an actor chases you home follows you home and gives you a page torn from a novel then not actually found objects they're constructed objects and everything in here from postcards to timelines to security cameras to movements to billboards on the street taxis waiting outside is constricted so it's partially architecture it's partially the construction of narrative it's partial theatre and performance and it's art making because there's constricted artworks that are part of the the whole project and it's been constructed that way because it was really important but to me that every visitor had a different experience the interesting thing about inaccessibility is that it's frequently more intriguing than the actuality of accessing the space when you're given something on a silver plate you're you often disregard it but if you find something on the floor and put it in your pocket and you're on your own when you find it you evaluate a great deal more than being given basically this this whole project is ab is a novel that's been written and this is the fallout or the offcuts or the byproduct of that novel but instead of flicking through a book and reading it you're living it and walk in it and and when you leave the compound and you go home does this strange moment where you think you're leaving fiction and entering back into the reality of the world but it follows you home so you never quite know when it ends