:00:09. > :00:17.When we're young we use our imagination all day, everyday. But
:00:18. > :00:25.imagination is more than just make-believe. It's the magic that
:00:26. > :00:31.makes the world a better place. Maybe that's why being a kid feels
:00:32. > :00:37.so good. It's something we should never grow out of. That's why we've
:00:38. > :00:41.launched Imagineering, an initiative to imagine and create a better
:00:42. > :00:51.future, not just for our children, but for us all. For more information
:00:52. > :00:56.visit gov. Uk/imagineering. What you have just seen isn't a real
:00:57. > :01:03.Government advert. It's actually a provocative new artwork by
:01:04. > :01:06.conceptual artist Ryan Gander. A cultural magpie renowned for his
:01:07. > :01:12.cryptily, playful challenging works, he is one of the world's most
:01:13. > :01:16.exciting artists -- cryptic. His prolific output is all about
:01:17. > :01:21.storytelling and the power of ideas, with works that range across a huge
:01:22. > :01:26.variety of styles and forms. The point of being an artist is that
:01:27. > :01:35.you can do something different every day. Instigator, inventor. He will
:01:36. > :01:41.pull the rug out from under the audience. There is conceptual art
:01:42. > :01:47.and then there is Ryan Gander. Ryan is the real thing. With works on
:01:48. > :01:50.show this summer in London, Tokyo, and Singapore, as well as a major
:01:51. > :01:56.solo exhibition in Manchester next month, this film explores Gander's
:01:57. > :01:58.unique artistic voice. Don't touch the artwork, bloody hell! How many
:01:59. > :02:19.times have I told you? Amateurs! Like art world heavyweights Ai
:02:20. > :02:25.Weiwei and Anish Kapoor Ryan is represented by the Lisson Gallerien
:02:26. > :02:33.he's invited me to a private viewing space to see some of his larger
:02:34. > :02:38.works -- gallery. What is that? Each one is a portrait of a person, a
:02:39. > :02:44.significant moment in my life. So, it's a memory. They look like
:02:45. > :02:48.abstract, gesturist painting like you would expect to see in a
:02:49. > :02:53.gallery. But they're not actually the paintings. The paintings have
:02:54. > :02:58.been destroyed. These are the palates I use to mix the paint on.
:02:59. > :03:02.We can imagine the person from each? Exactly. They're different sizes so
:03:03. > :03:06.you can envisage the sizes of the painting. Then the colours are the
:03:07. > :03:10.colours that are obviously used in the painting and the amount of
:03:11. > :03:14.paint. They're given the tools to imagine what a painting looks like.
:03:15. > :03:19.One over there has loads of black and blue. I can imagine night-time.
:03:20. > :03:23.Exactly. This one here, blue and pink. He I would imagine, well,
:03:24. > :03:27.lovely blue sky and a lady in a pink dress, there you go. How traditional
:03:28. > :03:32.am I! You are not trying hard enough. It's an idea based-work that
:03:33. > :03:37.surrounds the idea of painting in a way. It's more about what we expect
:03:38. > :03:40.painting to be. But the possibilities of what painting could
:03:41. > :03:50.be if you think about it for long enough. And you take away all the
:03:51. > :03:55.formality and history. Well, I recognise this young lady,
:03:56. > :04:00.this young lady twice. She's a ballerina. You know when you go to a
:04:01. > :04:04.museum it's almost like they're standard issue. He made 30 of them.
:04:05. > :04:09.Every museum I go to I end up looking for her. Standing like this
:04:10. > :04:14.sometimes. Different poses but she's always there. I started thinking
:04:15. > :04:19.about it. About her role in the gallery and all the stuff she saw
:04:20. > :04:23.from her plinth. All the people that she's seen looking at her. I thought
:04:24. > :04:29.it would be nice to take her off the plinth. This is one of a series and
:04:30. > :04:37.they're all different. One of them she is having a fag with a cross leg
:04:38. > :04:40.leaning against the plinth and another she ease pushing the cube
:04:41. > :04:44.across the gallery. I imagine if you were watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon
:04:45. > :04:48.and went to a contemporary art gallery the artwork would probably
:04:49. > :04:51.be a blue cube. You see what I mean? It's like a cartoon version of
:04:52. > :04:55.contechary art. Whenever she's -- contemporary art. Whenever she's
:04:56. > :05:00.shown she's shown with these objects. There's something really
:05:01. > :05:05.sombre about her, because essentially she's bronze and is a
:05:06. > :05:08.ballerina and those two things contradict each other. You imagine
:05:09. > :05:14.she would be light on her feet and the fact she's always so heavily
:05:15. > :05:19.stuck to her plinth and can't get up and can't move. There's something
:05:20. > :05:24.really sad about it. So, it just feels like a natural role to give
:05:25. > :05:30.her life. Is it important for you to know about art, about the history of
:05:31. > :05:36.art in order to make your work? For me it's essential. To be well-versed
:05:37. > :05:39.and eloquent in visual language and part of that is knowing the history
:05:40. > :05:43.of art otherwise you are just using three-letter words and stuttering a
:05:44. > :05:52.lot. Yeah. What about this work over here? Yeah, this is another one that
:05:53. > :05:59.unravels a bit of art history. It's the Thinker's rock, Rodin's thinker.
:06:00. > :06:03.That's Bruce Forsythe! What would be the thinker be without a rock, a guy
:06:04. > :06:09.standing up, if you think about it. This is where he would think, where
:06:10. > :06:14.his beautiful buttocks would preside? It's not a representation
:06:15. > :06:20.of the original rock he sat on but it's more like the idea of it, that
:06:21. > :06:23.he is stood up and left and then that very heavy tangible thing that
:06:24. > :06:26.supported him and supported his thoughts, the thing that you never
:06:27. > :06:32.think about, is left behind. Would you be happy for people to sit on
:06:33. > :06:37.it, to wear it down a bit more with their buttocks? Depends if you buy
:06:38. > :06:41.it, if you buy it you can do what you want with it!
:06:42. > :06:45.Picasso once observed that every child is an artist. The problem is
:06:46. > :06:51.how to remain and artist once we grow up. But Ryan may have solved
:06:52. > :06:56.this conundrum by taking inspiration directly from his daughter, Olive,
:06:57. > :07:00.transforming her play dens built from old brollies and ice-cream tubs
:07:01. > :07:06.into expensive marble sculptures. It's one of the most enjoyable
:07:07. > :07:10.works. They're so fun to make. It's everyday, isn't it? This is anever
:07:11. > :07:15.day event in many people's houses and yet you have kind of taken it,
:07:16. > :07:19.transported it into something else. It's just having your eyes open.
:07:20. > :07:23.It's that moment of realisation, the moment where I move back from it and
:07:24. > :07:29.looked at it and my eyes were open and my mind was turned on enough to
:07:30. > :07:33.say, ah, that's actually brilliant. It's finding things that are
:07:34. > :07:40.phenomenal, the phenomenon of everyday life. And for me that's one
:07:41. > :07:46.of them, yeah. Even in works which are deceptively simple there's
:07:47. > :07:51.always a rather poetic streak to them and attempt to make the world
:07:52. > :07:58.appear a bit more magical. To make us aware of our own creativity, as
:07:59. > :08:03.well as his. Ryan lives with his family in rural Suffolk, and works
:08:04. > :08:11.out of this studio, a laboratory for what he describes as Idea Diarrhoea.
:08:12. > :08:21.Basically, these are photos I take on my phone. I look the fact you
:08:22. > :08:25.have, to sort. Down here, sorted. Public art. Mugs. Picture search.
:08:26. > :08:30.What is picture search, what does that mean? Picture search, you know
:08:31. > :08:40.when you go on to the internet and choose pictures... Is that raffia?
:08:41. > :08:45.Yeah, chairs and stuff. Lamps, trees with meaning, hybrid tools. They're
:08:46. > :08:50.odd categories. Well, not odd to me, I know what they mean. Trees with
:08:51. > :08:54.meaning? Yeah, trees with meaning. I am going to show that one. See how
:08:55. > :08:58.much meaning, there is only two of them. It's a thin idea at the
:08:59. > :09:01.moment. But they are the beginning of something that will become art or
:09:02. > :09:05.the beginning of something that's just in your head or what? Yeah,
:09:06. > :09:09.well, the hope is that they'll become something. Some of these are
:09:10. > :09:14.in there for three years, you know. The same with all the words on the
:09:15. > :09:18.wall, it's there at the same stage, in a way. These are also categories.
:09:19. > :09:22.Subjects of things that I am interested in. You can have all this
:09:23. > :09:27.in your mind but can't keep it all at the front of your mind. It's a
:09:28. > :09:30.constant reminder. This would slightly panic me. Does it make you
:09:31. > :09:35.think I am a bit mad? You know when you get a murderer in a spare
:09:36. > :09:42.bedroom in the mill am -- in the film... No, it would be one topic.
:09:43. > :09:47.You are lots of topics, you are balanced. In one sense Ryan is 18th
:09:48. > :09:51.century, it's all interesting. You are being presented with his
:09:52. > :09:56.appetite in a way. And that appetite is very broad. Is this a kind of
:09:57. > :10:01.process, are you working down to an end? They get a bit more sorted here
:10:02. > :10:05.and then they turn into all this stuff over here. I need the
:10:06. > :10:09.physicality of things to think about, these are candles with
:10:10. > :10:13.duration, these last five minutes, two minutes, ten minutes. USB
:10:14. > :10:21.sticks, that's something else I am trying to work out. Scratch cards.
:10:22. > :10:29.The great artists interpret the age they live in. Ryan is one of those
:10:30. > :10:33.kind of artists who actually pose the question of where our culture is
:10:34. > :10:38.going. These are works that I am trying to bosh out. Is this where
:10:39. > :10:44.you spend most of the time? Yeah, up and down here. This is where - this
:10:45. > :10:48.is the last stage before they go to the studio in London. But
:10:49. > :10:55.conceptually they get pretty formalised here.
:10:56. > :11:00.Studio Gander in London represents the business end of Ryan's world and
:11:01. > :11:04.with upcoming shows in Manchester, Japan, Sydney, Vancouver, and
:11:05. > :11:12.Montreal, it's an extremely busy time. Ryan is being closely followed
:11:13. > :11:18.and watched. His works sell for tens of thousands of pounds, up to half a
:11:19. > :11:31.million for major projects. And maybe more. There is an element of
:11:32. > :11:36.entrepreneurial. You are on laptops, making phone calls. You are all on
:11:37. > :11:43.it, just like that. The people that we are dealing with are like museums
:11:44. > :11:46.and, you know, massive galleries. And professional institutions. I
:11:47. > :11:53.want to get it all done and make it good, you know, not just fart around
:11:54. > :11:58.being whimsical about it. Very few of Ryan's works are actually
:11:59. > :12:03.physically made by him. So he is his creative team have to find the right
:12:04. > :12:06.craftsmen to realise all his ideas. I can't make everything and for
:12:07. > :12:11.amount I want to do and varied materials or processes I want to
:12:12. > :12:19.use, there would have to be 30 of me. We have fabricaters we use and
:12:20. > :12:23.have relations with ten different people that do all that. A lot of
:12:24. > :12:27.the works, it doesn't matter if I make them or someone else would make
:12:28. > :12:31.them. The only thing that is really important is that they communicate
:12:32. > :12:39.properly. It matters that the thing exists? And that it's what I wanted.
:12:40. > :12:44.Ryan is an incredibly difficult artist to pin down and it's not
:12:45. > :12:50.always easy to identify a work as being Ryan's. Everything is
:12:51. > :12:54.possible. These trainers, they're prototypes. They're originals being
:12:55. > :12:58.made in Tokyo, they asked us to make a couple of pairs of trainers.
:12:59. > :13:03.They'll be commercially available in shops, although they'll be limited.
:13:04. > :13:08.These are ones with what appears to be mud on them? Yeah. You know, when
:13:09. > :13:14.you get your new shoes and keep them all white and you get the real
:13:15. > :13:17.trainer buffs and they're like, I have dirt on my trainers! I thought
:13:18. > :13:26.I would take that to a ridiculous level. These ones, have you seen the
:13:27. > :13:31.A-ha video Take On Me? Of course I have They inspired these ones, all
:13:32. > :13:35.sketchy. People might think where have you been, to Glastonbury or to
:13:36. > :13:39.Finsbury Park and didn't realise it had been raining. It's like the
:13:40. > :13:43.consequence of something. Yeah. These ones I like because I like the
:13:44. > :13:48.idea that you have got this side. Double-sided. We often have a vote
:13:49. > :13:52.here, we can do a vote guys. OK. I am going to hold up the muddy
:13:53. > :14:06.trainers. Do we have any votes for muddy trainers? Shad Joey
:14:07. > :14:13.trainers... -- shadowy trainers! That would be great if nobody put
:14:14. > :14:19.their hands up for either. This is a cabinet! As if by magic. What is
:14:20. > :14:23.within? I could not really see. That is the point, it frosts before you
:14:24. > :14:28.get to it. It is like the portraits of the pallets, where you see the
:14:29. > :14:36.pallet and your expectation of the imagery in your mind is what becomes
:14:37. > :14:46.the image. It is my nose broken off. It is like
:14:47. > :14:54.the Smith's song. And so it is - there's no hearing aid. All those
:14:55. > :15:03.classical statues... You know what it makes me want to do? Back off a
:15:04. > :15:16.bit. It is on a timer. I need a pair of binoculars.
:15:17. > :15:28.He is a pranster. I wondered if you were going to interview me was some
:15:29. > :15:35.weird joke. It is funny. Don't look back!
:15:36. > :15:37.It is serious. There is something going on there, which is more
:15:38. > :15:50.complex than that. As part of a big National Trust
:15:51. > :15:57.project, Ryan's imagination has been let lose in the home of Erno
:15:58. > :16:06.Goldfinger, the man who designed the trer lick tower.
:16:07. > :16:12.-- Trellick Tower. It is funny having a museum in
:16:13. > :16:18.somebody's home. You feel like you are prieing a little bit. Is that
:16:19. > :16:24.what you felt? It was hard to make the show. He is a bit of a hero of
:16:25. > :16:30.mine anyway. I like those people, who they think on a multitude of
:16:31. > :16:34.levels and can swap skills. Goldfinger did toys. He wrote books.
:16:35. > :16:40.He was an architect. A furniture designer. He was like a proper
:16:41. > :16:43.genius. Proper, quick, sharp brain. Because it is a National Trust
:16:44. > :16:47.property you cannot sit on a chair or touch anything. You cannot put in
:16:48. > :16:52.anything that will mess it up. There is a painting here - it is a
:16:53. > :16:57.painting of a dirty marks around a painting that was there. They took
:16:58. > :17:04.the painting away and reproduced the dirt. An argument in historic houses
:17:05. > :17:09.is, is the dirt of value? Was it his dirt? How far do you push it? He was
:17:10. > :17:13.big into investigation into things. What art is about. Investigation
:17:14. > :17:17.into trying to make a new language for art. I think it is a hugely
:17:18. > :17:36.intelligent individual. So the book meets insol. It is one
:17:37. > :17:41.of books that is too big to read. Another glass of champagne. I like
:17:42. > :17:47.this because you cannot think of much more personal. You would not go
:17:48. > :17:53.to a charity shop and buy shoes and find somebody else's insoles in
:17:54. > :17:55.there. It is seeing two opposites and seeing how they collide
:17:56. > :18:06.together. Seeing what sort of... So this is
:18:07. > :18:15.his office. It is amazing, isn't it? This is His chess set and it fits
:18:16. > :18:19.with the rest of the house. It is your chess set that you have made
:18:20. > :18:24.The design for it is something my dad told me as a kid. He used to
:18:25. > :18:28.work at Vauxhalls. He said the pieces from the underside of a bed
:18:29. > :18:42.of a truck would make really great lovers. He was talking about these
:18:43. > :18:48.two. Reinterpreted by my dad. It is this
:18:49. > :18:52.weird proof success. They are logical and illogical coming
:18:53. > :18:56.together to make sure which is functional. Most art is not
:18:57. > :19:04.functional, is it? It is the new use of a memory as well. Exactly. I
:19:05. > :19:13.thought this fitted here really well because both he was a great mind.
:19:14. > :19:20.Sherlock Holmes played chess. All the great minds knew how to play
:19:21. > :19:22.chess. The viker one, the dad, the mum and the prawns!
:19:23. > :19:54.Again, terrible with chess! Ryan's booming international profile
:19:55. > :19:59.means both he and his team are constantly travelling all over the
:20:00. > :20:04.world. He personally plans and oversees the
:20:05. > :20:08.installation of every new show or exhibition. And when time allows, he
:20:09. > :20:14.likes to check up on some of his major public commissions.
:20:15. > :20:15.Whilst also making sure that certain jokes haven't been Lost in
:20:16. > :20:24.Translation. What Ryan does says with you. It
:20:25. > :20:27.seems to cross borders incredibly well.
:20:28. > :20:36.He throws ideas off. Idea after idea after idea!
:20:37. > :20:45.Well, tonight is the book launch. And the book is? Arctic Cocktails
:20:46. > :20:49.Running Gander, which is something I put together. It is like 60
:20:50. > :20:54.different cocktails. Each one invented by a different artist. This
:20:55. > :21:02.idea that cocktails are like art - it is just a drink, isn't it? It can
:21:03. > :21:08.be both. Mixing a drink. Inventing one is like an artwork. Some are
:21:09. > :21:16.very decent cocktails but some of them are purely conceptual. This is
:21:17. > :21:24.incredibly conceptual! It is two different cocktails.
:21:25. > :21:31.The idea of the artist cocktail sl highly soe -- is highly
:21:32. > :21:37.sophisticated. It has a bit of Abigail's Party about it, as well as
:21:38. > :21:48.some of the most glamorous spots in the world. The suburbia of Abigail's
:21:49. > :21:56.Party is something Ryan is very familiar with, having grown up here
:21:57. > :22:02.in chester. It is like the Wonder Years. It is nostalgic. That was my
:22:03. > :22:09.house there. I guess when I was about 16, 17, I made art in the
:22:10. > :22:15.garage. My dad cleaned it out. We would go and sit in there on a
:22:16. > :22:20.Friday night and smoke cherry tobacco and make art. Where did you
:22:21. > :22:27.make the leap to own another house like this to becoming an artist or
:22:28. > :22:33.wanting to become an artist? That is a hard question. There was a friend,
:22:34. > :22:37.called Max, he lived up the road. His mum made paintings. That family
:22:38. > :22:41.was my introduction to art. The only thing I was really good at was like
:22:42. > :22:46.having ideas and trying to make things happen. Like? Like going
:22:47. > :22:52.around the estate here with a small business where we polished shoes, me
:22:53. > :22:58.and my brother. Like opening a disco in the garage and selling cherry
:22:59. > :23:05.yeaed for 10 p as a small business. If you grow up in an environment
:23:06. > :23:10.like this it is very secure and enclosed, it gives you something
:23:11. > :23:16.solid to spring out of t. It was colour and -- spring out of. If it
:23:17. > :23:24.was all colour and noise, there would be nothing to spring out of.
:23:25. > :23:30.He enjoys the position of his background with this kind of weird
:23:31. > :23:35.Miami vice lifestyle he has as an artist. I think he enjoys the
:23:36. > :23:42.friction between the two worlds. In a way I think maybe his work is a
:23:43. > :23:49.bit like that as well. It is like putting togethers which are not
:23:50. > :23:53.alike together. Ryan swapped his dad's garage for art school, getting
:23:54. > :23:59.a first class degree, before heading off to the Jan Eyck Academie in
:24:00. > :24:04.Maastricht. Over then you got an apartment, studio, technicians to
:24:05. > :24:08.help you. Didn't pay fees. And I developed my own language as an
:24:09. > :24:12.artist there. I went there making stuff that just looked like other
:24:13. > :24:16.people's work. I came out making stuff that didn't look like anyone's
:24:17. > :24:28.work. When did you sell your first piece of work? 2005. It was called
:24:29. > :24:35.Is this Guilting you Too - Car In A Field. It was frozen. It was dawn.
:24:36. > :24:44.It was like a mystery where you could not work out whether there was
:24:45. > :24:48.somebody in the car or not. It sounds like you know those things,
:24:49. > :24:52.somebody is dead in the room and there is just water on the floor. It
:24:53. > :24:55.was based on that. Would you say you are to a certain extent restricted
:24:56. > :25:01.by being in a wheelchair helps your imagination go to other places? It
:25:02. > :25:05.is like being in prison, isn't it? People who write novels in their
:25:06. > :25:12.heads. It is the same sort of thing. I mean, you could say that, but you
:25:13. > :25:20.could equally say, being in a wheelchair has influenced my work as
:25:21. > :25:24.much as I came from chester, I grew up in suburbia, I wear glasses. It
:25:25. > :25:32.has to be about the world and all the good things in the world.
:25:33. > :25:39.A part of the world Ryan is attached to is lan lan in -- of Llandudno in
:25:40. > :25:43.north Wales. I love the cliche that all the British stereotypes seem to
:25:44. > :25:45.be pushed out of Britain to its edges and they all remain along the
:25:46. > :25:58.coast. Every time! There was a work that I
:25:59. > :26:03.made that features this town, that is called I Walked Alone. About a
:26:04. > :26:07.family from London w a girl. Somebody happens to the family and
:26:08. > :26:13.they go on a witness protection programme and they move to
:26:14. > :26:21.Llandudno. I made posters, I did casting shoots, but I never made the
:26:22. > :26:26.film. It went through the process of going going to make a film without
:26:27. > :26:32.making a film. That was the artwork. Ryan is here to install an
:26:33. > :26:36.exhibition at the Mostyn Art Gallery. It is a small show, but one
:26:37. > :26:41.which means a lot to him. The last show I did was in Tokyo. The next
:26:42. > :26:44.one is in Singapore. This one is in Llandudno. This is the one I am
:26:45. > :26:51.enjoying the most. Because it is here, it is the region where I am
:26:52. > :26:57.from. All my mates from Chester are here, surrounded by people I love in
:26:58. > :27:04.a very familiar place. It feels like a home-coming.
:27:05. > :27:17.I cannot think of anybody that goes at it harder! If he looks like he
:27:18. > :27:24.has an urgency to get things done... I care about the contribution that I
:27:25. > :27:28.make to a bigger history. So, these are like tiny drops in the
:27:29. > :27:33.ocean. The bigger picture is the history of
:27:34. > :27:38.art. That's the thing that I most
:27:39. > :27:52.actively think about, worry about. With a view to helping others shape
:27:53. > :27:58.art history too, Ryan has ambitious plans to open a pioneering art
:27:59. > :28:03.school near his home in Suffolk. So, Ryan, you have got loads going
:28:04. > :28:07.on. You have a show in Manchester, around the world, you are constantly
:28:08. > :28:14.making work and you have this as well. The idea is it is a charity.
:28:15. > :28:18.People would apply and there'd be a board that would select based on
:28:19. > :28:22.need and based on potential. And they would come here and they
:28:23. > :28:25.would stay for six months and, you know, they wouldn't have to have a
:28:26. > :28:29.job, they would just make art. It is that opportunity that I had when I
:28:30. > :28:33.went to Maastricht, in a way. That doesn't exist in Britain. I mean,
:28:34. > :28:40.you know this better than anyone, the best export, the best culture,
:28:41. > :28:45.like music, like film... Fashion, art... And there's no provision to
:28:46. > :28:50.make sure the future of that is secure. It is because it's not
:28:51. > :28:56.really quantifiable in people's minds that culture can be an asset
:28:57. > :28:59.to a country. You know? So, another little project to add to the list of
:29:00. > :29:27.projects. MUSIC: "Hotel Room"
:29:28. > :29:36.by Richard Hawley Now, unless you want to miss out,
:29:37. > :29:40.sign up for 2mail -