Ryan Gander: The artists have the keys

Taking as his inspiration the furniture and fittings that Ernö Goldfinger designed for 2 Willow Road, leading British artist Ryan Gander has created new works that are now exhibited interspersed with the collection in the architect’s Modernist home.

Goldfinger was a Hungarian-born architect and designer of furniture who is most notably remembered for his residential tower blocks, part of the government’s attempt to solve the housing shortage after World War II. Among his most iconic buildings were the 27-floor Balfron Tower in the East End and the 31-floor Trellick Tower in North Kensington which are both fine examples of Brutalist architecture.

One audio-visual work in the exhibition (A flawed and wounded man bleeding frames onto a page) is a performance of a children’s book written by Gander, entitled The Boy Who Always Looked Up, about Goldfinger’s relationship to Trellick Tower. The work is a dramatic radio play, filmed in a professional recording studio, incorporating a live performance by foley artists using sound effect props to accompany the narrative.

Goldfinger designed 2 Willow Road for himself and his family in 1939 and the house contains the Goldfingers' impressive collection of modern art, intriguing personal possessions and innovative furniture. His ground-breaking design details still feel fresh today and Gander’s works draw on the objects designed and assembled by the Goldfinger family. Anyone with a family is motivated by money, for example, is a self-assembly moneybox designed and made using the same slot-together technique used by Elizabeth Goldfinger for the lounge chairs in 2 Willow Road itself.

Ryan Gander’s complex and unfettered conceptual practice is stimulated by queries, investigations or what-ifs, rather than strict rules or limits. Gander is a cultural magpie in the widest sense, polymathically taking popular notions apart only to rebuild them in new ways. His work involves a questioning of language and knowledge, a reinvention of the modes of appearance and creation of an artwork.

Part of the National Trust's 'The London Project'. Supported by Lisson Gallery, London.