Ryan Jarvis is an artist based in Glasgow working in participatory arts and design. He has a varied practice and makes use of whatever is practical. Due to his day job this is mostly a laptop or phone. At any time he has several projects ongoing; most are collection based which may be completed upon stopping or contributed to forever.

Based on his experience in wage-labour roles, Ryan reflects on how authority and control is administered over and through workers, particularly where it appears lateral, self-governed or invisible altogether. This forms a significant bearing for his work, where-in habits, routines and sensibilities common to many workers regardless of role or position are exaggerated or mimicked.   

This idea of de-centralised control and worker disempowerment is the underlying theme which informs a ‘world-building’ aspect of Ryan’s work. For example, a prevailing motif is mundane and noxious entities becoming animate, everyday objects with unseen threatening auras like an irradiated material, and references to esoteric/conspiratorial modes of social control. These notions are often embedded in nostalgic or self-effacing forms to create a dynamic of funny ha-ha and funny strange/peculiar.