Ryan Gander A moving object, Or Doctoring around, 2025

An ice cream cone sits upside down on the floor, as if it has accidentally been dropped a moment ago. The ice cream is still solid near the cone and melting away where it has made contact with the floor.

Made from painted bronze, the small life-size sculpture alludes in a playful manner to profound and existential issues. Ryan Gander observed a child dropping an ice cream and came to understand this experience as a primary lesson of regret: Before this incident, everything was perfectly fine, but afterwards, everything has changed. It is not possible to go back in time to undo the occurrence – even the most intense regret will not help achieve that. Thus as a temporal marker, the dropped ice cream not only stands for one-time decisive points on the linear axis between past and future, but also for the futility of regret, perhaps especially that of an adult regarding childhood.