Ryan Gander opens new installation with National Glass Centre in Sunderland

7 April 2022

Ryan Gander was one of four artists commissioned by the National Glass Centre to create works that will be on display across the north-east of England until September as part of the Glass Exchange initiative. Alongside projects by Monster Chetwynd, Katie Paterson and Pascale Marthine Tayou, Gander presents Ghost Shop (2022) in a vacant shop front in Sunderland city centre.

The installation, developed over a period of two years, offers a life-sized comment on the decline of the British high street, and to Gander also references our lack of attention to dangers in plain sight, for which glass felt like the perfect medium.

The commission depicts an abandoned betting shop with all fixtures and fittings made in clear glass, including details such as an upturned bin spilling out discarded betting slips, and a pile of unopened post. The largest object in the installation is a full-size fixed odds betting terminal, based on the controversial slot machines that campaigners argue have been cataclysmic for problem gamblers.

Find more information via the National Glass Centre.