“My mum has this saying, ‘there’s no pockets in the shroud’,” says artist Ryan Gander. “She’s like some kind of some suburban middle class Buddhist, and means I’m not going to get any inheritance probably, but she’s got a point.
“We understand the world by stuff. Things, articles, objects, and we always want more, more, more. Actually we should be understanding the world by events, and conversations and moments, things that we can take with us.”
His latest work, launched today at the Manchester International Festival, is called The Find. It takes the form of 200,000 coins, valueless in monetary terms, but specially minted for a sprawling display that will disperse its way all around the city and well beyond too, in the pockets of anyone who finds them.
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100 volunteers have been out and about, placing the coins on benches, in bus stops, ledges, window sills all over town. The coins also come with a choice on each side; together or solo, action or pause, and speak or listen.
You can then do what you wish with them. Put them back, keep them, use them to make decisions. Some honest folk have already been handing them back in to community support officers and at the Central Library.
“People are so honest,” he says. “Very honest Mancunians. It’s quite weird. There are very few things in the world that are a gift, so to give a gift to a third of the population of a city, it’s a remarkable thing.
“People take different things from it. I’ve met people already who carry all three in their pockets and they said they’re going to carry them for life and use them.
“There are two audiences really, there is the audience that know about the festival, and about my work on the hunt to get collectable art works, but then there’s the 99% who are people that don’t know they’re engaging with contemporary art.”
Ryan, originally from Chester and who was awarded an OBE for his services to contemporary art in 2017 is quite aware that art can still be an ‘incredibly elitist’ space. So that’s where his work comes in. “People engage with the coins, by chance, outside of the institution of art, and by the time that they’re engaged and they’re doing it, it’s only then that they realise it’s contemporary art, and the stigma disappears. It’s accessible, and it’s a good way in. People have their guard down.”
Most of all though, Ryan wants this display of public art to make people change - just a little bit - the way they might usually behave.
“We automatically make decisions, but based on habit. We should be asking ourselves questions every day, even if we know the answers, because the world changes all around us and the answers change. So most of our answers are wrong.
“The coins are a reminder that we can learn and explore and live a little bit differently, but mostly just break the repetition that we all live by. Walk the long way to work, eat something different for lunch, talk to someone you’ve never spoken to. I’m at fault with all those things too.
“But I know when I make decisions which are out of habit and out of character, it mega mega mega enriches my life.”
If you've not yet been out on the hunt for Ryan's coins - or you have, but haven't been able to collect the full set - there's a list of rough locations where you might come across them, including the following:
- Aviva Studios & Festival Square
- China Town
- Gay Village, Sackville Gardens and Vimto Park
- The Northern Quarter
- Ancoats and New Islington
- Mayfield Park
- St Ann’s Square
- St Peter's Square
- Spinningfields
Two more drops of coins are also set to happen on July 14 and July 16, as the MIF draws to a close. In Manchester, this means more coins in Heaton Park, Crumpsall Park, Alexandra Park, Wythenshawe Park, Chorlton Park, Whitworth Park and Platt Fields. In Salford, there will be more coins in Peel Park and in Broadfield Park in Rochdale.
You can find more information on Ryan's work for the Manchester International Festival here...
