Golden Space Doughnut balances a posture of throwaway playfulness with the pretence of jewel-like preciousness. That is, the work is neither entirely serious nor merely silly, and it seems to be part of the point in that it is hard to know what to make of it. A golden object set upon a golden plinth contrasts classical elegance and lowly fashions, exploring tensions between image and object. The abstract and timeless concept of desire is linked with tangible yet transient commodification of the object. This is material and materialism: glitter and the dysfunction of desires.
Courtesy of MARS Gallery
Giles Ryder is based between Thailand and Australia. A graduate of Griffith University, he also undertook postgraduate studies at Sydney College of the Arts and Kunsthochschule Berlin, with funding from Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. Ryder was a recipient of the ARTAND Australia/Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award in 2006 and was an Asian Pacific Artist Fellow at Korea's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2011.
Selected solo exhibitions include Black Magic (2012), Blockprojects, Melbourne; Artereal Gallery (2011), Sydney; The New Nouveaux Nullism (2010), Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane; Life without Rituals (2010), Blockprojects, Melbourne; and Vectorize (2009), Raum Weiss, Berlin. Selected group exhibitions include Be Abstract (2014), Kunstverein Schwabisch Hall & Ballhaus Ost, Berlin; Less is More (2012), Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; Conflicts of Interest II (2012), H Gallery, Bangkok; and the Korean International Art Fair (2011).
Public collections include Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; Artbank, Sydney; and Griffith Artworks, Brisbane. Ryder's works are included in private collections in Austria, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Munich, Leiden, Netherlands, Edinburgh, London, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. He teaches at Bangkok University International and has also taught at Sydney College of the Arts/The University of Sydney and King Mongkut's University of Technology Ladkrabaeng in Thailand.
Perspex, mixed media, enamel
30 x 50 x 50 cm
Finalist
Judges of the 2017 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize: Djon Mundine OAM (Curator, Writer, Artist and Activist), Roslyn Oxley OAM (Gallerist and arts benefactor) and Alexie Glass-Kantor (Executive Director, Artspace, Sydney and Curator, Encounters, Art Basel | Hong Kong).
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