Gabriel Lester pt. 1

Melancholia in Arcadia, lace curtains, textile hardener

'Installed at "I am Not a Studio Artist" on the occasion of the opening of SALT in 2011, an exhibition dedicated to Huseyin Bahri Alptekin, a dear friend who passed away in 2007. The title of the work is identical to a series of photographs by Huseyin shot in Odessa, showing curtains blowing in the wind. These images inspired an installation of hardened lace curtains, frozen in time and space. The work refers to the gesture of opening the windows to set free the soul of the deceased, as well as the idea of a spirit present in a room, mysteriously lifting the curtains to reveal its presence.'

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- textile hardener??
- at first I thought this was just a still image of curtains actually blowing in the wind and perhaps the artist had installed a fan behind them or something, interesting that you can't even tell by looking that something is holding them in that position
- this work was how I found the artist, I was originally drawn to it by the curtains and lighting, similar to my own work
- it also reflects on memory, or rather remembering in ideas about presence of the deceased
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Night of the 24th & 23rd & 22nd, lattive, MDF, props

'The ongoing series of installation “The Night of…” is an interior scene set inside a cube made of lattice. The angle under which the lattice is placed proposes four views onto a scene. Furthermore, the angle of the lattice is such, that de room appears as a solid, closed space from the inside and outside. The lattice functions as a shutter, in the cinematographic sense, creating a motion picture from still images. The shutter framework directs the gaze and suggests the perspective. Each scene shows a moment frozen in time, a moment when something has happened, is happening or is about to happen: a chair up in the air, an office cleaned out, a bedroom abandoned yet inhabited. Together the successive scenes form a narrative.

“The Night of…” refers to a specific line of dialogue familiar from film noir and crime movies. The complete line is: “Where were you on the night of the 24th”? The dates may vary, but the line is always the same, implying that the answer should explain someone’s whereabouts, an alibi, an explanation for where one was when something else happened.'

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- I like that this is a fully set scene but the viewer is only allowed a glimpse at certain angles of different parts of it

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Chance Encounters, 2011, ongoing MDF, wheels, paint, props

'On tour since 2011, twenty-two objects on wheels form an ever-changing installation consisting of artificial tropical plants and odd shaped pedestals. The pedestals are mostly left empty but occasionally display small sculptures and objects or have evolved into clear sculptural shapes. Much like pawns of a board game, a collection of decorative elements found in a casino, the ingredients of a hotel lobby or an assembly of large-scale architecture models, the installation is never fixed in its form, changing its configuration, moving on its wheels sooner by accident than by decision, as if subjected to an invisible tide.'

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