Ryan Van Der Hout Creates 10-Foot Tall Discoball-Satellite, 'To Reflect Everything' for The City of Toronto
Oeno Gallery is pleased to shine light upon a sensational new installation by photographer and sculptor, Ryan Van Der Hout titled ‘To Reflect Everything’. The ten-foot-tall gleaming disco ball-satellite was created with steel, fibreglass, and mirror-finished stainless steel for The City of Toronto and is on view now in the Toronto Sculpture Garden.
The exhibition text states, “The sculpture is a hybrid of a disco ball and a space satellite, a radical attempt to queer simple definitions, functions, actions and values. It lives and shines and occupies space, its presence impossible to ignore – even if, sometimes, one may disappear inside its gaps.” The work is largely about conquering freedom and acceptance. Its alluring surface invites viewers to self-reflect and reconsider their surroundings from another perspective.
The work is a clever, material refusal of anything’s ability to only be one thing - everything around us is continually shape-shifting. Van Der Hout’s inspiration for this innovative and striking sculpture is the satellite Ajisai, which has been orbiting the planet since launching in 1986. ‘To Reflect Everything’ took 6 months to create and consists of a silver steel base suggesting a cosmodrome, and a fibreglass surface decorated with dozens of polished mirrors.
To Reflect Everything is presented in partnership with Art Toronto and United Contemporary.
‘To Reflect Everything’ was commissioned by the City of Toronto and will be on display at the Toronto Sculpture Garden from September 12, 2023 to May 2024. Don’t forget to Save The Date for Nuit Blanche on September 23rd from 7pm to 7am — you’ll want to stop by Ryan Van Der Hout’s disco ball satellite during the all-night celebration of contemporary art! There will be a DIY silent disco with DJ Phillippe of Yohomo marking the launch of ‘To Reflect Everything’ and you’re encouraged to dance! Visitors are encouraged to bring their own mobile devices and headphones to join the live stream of the silent disco.
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For years, Van Der Hout has been pushing the boundaries of photography within his sculpture. His series of compelling minimalist sculptures on view in the Oeno Gallery Sculpture Garden in Prince Edward County illustrate the effects of light and motion on lenses. Van Der Hout’s reflective structures are all for sale at oenogallery.com. View all works
“Each sculpture becomes something of a static camera, documenting the many changes in the scene around it.”
Ryan Van Der Hout
Van Der Hout is a graduate of Ryerson's photography program. His work has been published in The Huffington Post, CBC online, and Readers Digest. In 2017, he won the Emerging Photographer Award from the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, for his laser-cut pigment print with gold leaf, Before the Storm. Reach out to the Oeno Gallery team to inquire about purchasing any of the works featured above, or browse more HERE.
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Exhibition Text: (in quotations) by Renata Azevedo Moreira