Viewing Ryan Gander: I’ve Fallen Foul of My Desire

January is the last chance to head over to Camden to see Ryan Gander’s exhibition I’ve Fallen Foul of My Desire at Camden Arts Projects, a selection of new and recent sculptures by the British artist, animatronics and installations that explore how we perceive, distort and inhabit time, and how imagination might change our relationship to it.

Central to the exhibition is The Storyteller: The sense that you are a part of a flow of a thing (2025) — an animatronic harvest mouse that emerges from a hole in the gallery wall to deliver a philosophical monologue in the voice of Gander’s daughter. Acting as the “conscience” of the show, this whimsical yet thoughtful piece invites visitors to reflect on identity, commodification and the fluid nature of experience.

The works on display unsettle conventional measures of worth. In the courtyard, the monumental black sphere Why am I so distracted? (2025) prompts a playful critique of modern distraction — perhaps overlooked by visitors absorbed in their phones. A standout work is Equivalent Economies and Equivalent Means (2018), a vending machine that originally offered either €10,000 in banknotes or stones collected by Gander and his children, both priced equally. This piece questions systems of value, memory and exchange, pushing the viewer to reconsider what we really prize. Elsewhere, playful elements — such as a double-offset wall clock Chronos Kairos, 01.01 (2025) that glitches between realities, and two stray cats wandering the space — extend the exhibition’s exploration of time, chance and presence.

Characteristic of Gander’s conceptual practice, I’ve Fallen Foul of My Desire combines humour, philosophical inquiry and everyday materials to create an experience that is as intellectually engaging as it is visually intriguing.