“Unlike many contemporary artists who use film as the starting point for their practice, re-cutting existing films, and so on, Lester works on a much more formal level. For him film is not a given material to be manipulated, a privileged part of the daily spectacle, but first and foremost a way of seeing and acting upon things.” (Aaron Schuster, ‘More is Lester. On the cinematic in the work of Gabriel Lester’)

Palpable presence. Spectacle and imagination in the work of Gabriel Lester

Nathalie Zonnenberg 

Usually, a curator’s first encounter with an artist occurs through their work. This may lead to collaboration in the form of an exhibition or a long-term project, and sometimes a friendship even ensues. In the case of Gabriel Lester, I first met the person before I became acquainted with his activities as an artist. At the time we started talking in an Amsterdam cafe late one night, I could hardly consider myself a fully fledged curator. As a staff member of the artist initiative W139, I was just starting to put my ideas about curating exhibitions into practice. Lester, for his part, could not yet call himself an established artist, but he did have articulate ideas and ambitions in this direction. 

Some time later I saw his first major work, How to Act (2000), at the Open Studios of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, and I was pleasantly surprised. Since then I have seen several of Lester’s projects and I am often amazed by the natural way in which the work is experienced. He himself provides a good explanation for that: ‘My intention is that my work is something that happens to people, much as life happens to people.’ With How to Actit was exciting to see how Lester gave meaning to the space merely with light and sound. What is striking is how freely Lester applies methods that do not originally belong to the domain of the visual arts. He explains that his childhood experiences of his father’s mime performances are an important reason for his fascination with illusionary space. But other experiences, too, such as classical film and film soundtracks, contribute to this. Today the crossover of various media is an established practice in the visual arts. In this context Lester’s work intrigues because of his relaxed, almost carefree approach. Lester confronts every new context offered for the presentation of his work with curiosity and above all plenty of enthusiasm, not restricted by any theoretical ballast. It is precisely this enthusiasm that draws in the spectator with such apparent ease. 

Apart from a number of performances and a few films in which he participated, thelion’s share of his work is characterised by an almost formalistic approach. This is expressed in the precise way Lester charts any given space before adding his installation or otherwise transforming it. According to Lester: ‘When I am invited to make a work on location, I first have a look at the exhibition space. I try to assess how people move around in that space, how they stand in relation to it. Before drafting the plans, I try to read the situation like a story, as something that has a beginning and an end. I want to make work which creates an experience you can take part in, rather than an “image” that one looks at.’ An early and typical example of this is the exhibition A Haunted House of Art(2002) in the space of the Amsterdam artists’ collective Outline. This exhibition comprised not Lester’s own work but that of other artists, which Lester selected and put together in the context of his own presentation. The whole was mostly reminiscent of a sort of cabinet of curiosities in which the selected works functioned as pieces of a set. The atmosphere of the presentation was far removed from a typical contemporary art exhibition and was more reminiscent of the spectacular experience of a visit to the theatre or amusement park. He simultaneously managed to create an environment in which the interaction with contemporary art suddenly became very lucid, natural even. 

Alongside the formal principles that he elaborates in his work – of which the minimalist Cut to the Chase,created for the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague in 2002 is a good example – Lester always includes unexpected additions, which convey an added sensibility to the work. He likes to compare his work with improvisation in music, which also departs from fixed, almost pragmatic structures of rhyme or melody. Improvisation lies in the details, which have the same importance for the total experience of the work that salt does for a meal, according to Lester.

Biography 

°1972, Amsterdam 

Solo Exhibitions 

2007

–         BIG BANG, Bloomberg Space, London

–         The Night of the 25th, MiArt, Milano

–         Last Piece of John Fare, GB-Agency, Paris

2006

–         SEEN, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm

–         4x4 hands, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo 

2005

–         A.B.C. Behind the Scenes, Glucksman Gallery, Cork

–         CHIAROSCURO, Natalia Goldin Gallery, Stockholm 

2004

–         Highlight (Plan B), Palais des Beaux-Arts/Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Bruxelles/Brussel

–         Beautiful Gamble, IASPIS, Stockholm 

2003

–         Clock & Clockwork, Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam

–         Break North, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden 

2002

–         Cut to the Chase, Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag

–         The Gift of Gab, Platform, Istanbul  

Group Exhibitions 

2007

–         Contour, Biennial for Video Art, Mechelen

–         The First Antechamber, Project Arts Centre, Dublin

–         Ontdekking van de Traagheid, KW14, ’s Hertogenbosch 

2006

–         Being in Brussels, Argos, Bruxelles/Brussel

–         Nederlands Film Festival, Utrecht

–         Undo/Redo, Fridericianum, Kassel

–         Busan Biennale, Busan

–         Cross Section, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere 

2005

–         For Sale, Turin Biennale, Torino

–         Juicy Meadows, Impakt Festival, Utrecht

–         This May Be…, Sculpture Center, New York

–         Black Market World, Baltic Triennial, Vilnius-London

–         More Then This!, Gothenburg Biennale, Göteborg

–         Past Present Forever, Buia, Gallery, New York 

2004

–         Traveling Without Moving, W139, Amsterdam

–         Traveling Without Moving, Trafo, Budapest

–         Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, Capacete, Rio de Janeiro

–         Olandu Burias, CAC, Vilnius

–         Puerto Rico 04, M&M Proyectos, Puerto Rico

–         Ahuman, MUU, Helsinki 

2003

–         Wanderlust, Antoine Dansaert, Bruxelles/Brussel

–         Second Biennale Attese, Albisola

–         Haupt/Nebenwegen, Gallery Christian Nagel, Köln

–         Models & Mavericks, Museum Het Domein, Sittard

–         White Meat, Gallery Harbord & Wiechofski, Berlin

–         Split & Pickup, STUK, Leuven 

2002

–         Kelder in de Vliering, W139, Amsterdam

–         What is Cinema, Tent, Rotterdam

–         A Haunted House, Outline, Amsterdam

-      Parel, Raid Projects, Los Angeles