Ryan Gander: Ghostwriter Subtext

Ryan Gander’s installation “Ghostwriter Subtext” consists of two single channel videos, one shown on a 16:9 projection, and one on a monitor. The projection documents an interview organized by Gander between the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and the architect Rem Koolhaas being interviewed by an anonymous ghostwriter on the subject of interviewing. Most of the questions put to Obrist and Koolhaas concern their own practice of interviewing artists and architects. The video is edited so that only shots of the participants listening to one another are visible. The spectator never sees anyone speaking during the interview. The monitor displays a subtext rendered in white text on a black background, documenting an internal debate as to the significance of the work, the appropriateness of the subjects and chosen methodologies. There are two voices, one of which refers to himself as “the artist,” although no indication is given as to which speaker is which. It is often unclear which voice we are reading. At times, the conversation offers a commentary on the first video, but it digresses into argument and counter-argument. Indeed, the conversation seems mostly concerned with the failure of the artist’s original intentions with respect to the first film, which is, in essence, an interview about interviewing and the potential erasure of meaning as soon as words are spoken.