Ryan Gander Phantom Ambition (Half finished bridges), 2024
A poster for a fictional exhibition that never occurred, but that in the mind of the artist, probably should have. Displayed, layered and pasted over the other forty-nine different posters from the same series, with only the last poster pasted on top ever being visible.
Poster paper, aluminum
Poster paper, aluminum
84,1 x 59,4 cm
Edition of 1 plus 1 artist's proof
Ryan Gander's Phantom Ambition is presented as a set of 50 posters glued onto one another leaving only the top one visible in full. Each work contains the entire set of 50 existing posters, visible as slivers of color on the sides, giving it a sculptural quality.
Yet the work itself entails a much broader project: Each of the 50 posters in the series represents an exhibition Gander has conceived for us to imagine. He has selected artists or groups of artists, writers, designers, even athletes, conceived of a title, picked a venue and chosen a date and duration, some in the past, others in the future. He designed the poster marking this imaginary event as it might have been produced by that institution in the period.