Artist g. bridle commenced a personal museum collection titled the Retreat in 2006, shaped by literary investigations and travel to destinations of interest—in particular, St. Petersburg, Russia. Since this time, within New Zealand and on further travels abroad, he has continued his methods of meticulous research, selection, acquisitions, taking photographs and sorting these all into the Retreat’s ongoing repository.

This evolving, expanding collection of ready-mades and assisted ready-mades encompasses photography, sculpture and time-based video, creating an undisclosed, imagined site where the artist, and others, can seek seclusion from consumer-driven human behaviour in an age of late capitalism and gain inspiration from the ‘aesthetic spirit’ that appears in visions. To this end, the collection's taxonomy is developed within ideas of place, travel, the fable and mythology.

Installed into a corner as the artist intended, Ferrule 5’s composite image plays out the literal concept of the Retreat, allowing a view from inside perhaps into an indeterminate kind of oasis.

g. bridle (born 1982, Napier) graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Massey University in 2004. Between 2008 and 2013 g. bridle exhibited iterations of the Retreat throughout New Zealand and internationally; at Zabludowicz Collection London, ARTSPACE Aotearoa, Bowerbank Ninow Gallery and St Paul Street Gallery, all Auckland; City Gallery Wellington and Adam Art Gallery, Wellington; Aratoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton; and The Physics Room, Christchurch.