加布里埃尔•莱斯特《洛克西》, 民生现代美术馆
November 26, 2012 – March 1, 2013, Minsheng Museum, Shanghai
Similar to my previous “re-discovery” of Shinro Ohtake at Artsonje Seoul, Gabriel Lester was another of the artists exhibiting in the Karlsaue Park at Documenta 13 (2012) in Kassel. As mentioned in my post on the Documenta 13, I was not that excited about the concept of putting many little huts and sculptures in the huge park. Lester’s contribution to the Documenta 13 consisted of a bent, round-shaped “tunnel” where you could walk in on one side… and walk out on the other. I did not make much sense to me at that time, but seeing the exhibition at the Minsheng Museum provided the necessary context to understand Lester’s body of work better.
The central topic around which his art is revolving is cinema and the cinematic language. The tunnel – which was gradually getting darker and darker… before gradually becoming lighter and lighter – was a ‘model’ for the ‘dip to black’ fade effect used in movies, usually to express that a certain amount of time has passed.
Three artworks were on display at the Mingsheng museum. One was a big cinema-like space, with a white block-shaped space in place of the projection screen – a kind of physical “3D” screen – illuminated with colored LEDs. A movie soundtrack was playing – steps, music, sound of car tyres, etc, and the lights were reacting to it. The result was an abstract play of light which provided an alternative ‘visualization’ of the imaginary film’s narrative. The illuminated space was not completely white, with small little specks here and there, which made it look a bit ‘cheap’ when compared to James Turrell’s ‘lightspace’ installations. However maybe that is a slightly unfair comparison, because the conceptual background as well as intended effect was different from Turrell’s. This work dealt with the idea of a movie and the arbitrary connection between sound and image in a multimedia work. As such, I found it quite good, even though a bit too decorative. It’s difficult not to look ‘decorative’ with colorful, computer controlled LEDs…
The second work of the show has been installed in what is the usual lecture space of Mingsheng Museum. The white bar stayed in place, but in addition to that the space has now been adorned with a red carpet and palm trees in golden paper covered flowerpots, plus one photograph on the wall. I understood the reference to the ‘red carpet’ on film festivals or film premieres, but that was about as much meaning I was able to dig out from this work.
The third work of the show, located in another separate dark room was probably the most ‘popular’ work of the three. A slowly moving conveyor belt in the middle of the room has been planted full with models of houses, trees and people, and illuminated in dim light from the sides. As a result a constantly changing succession of shadows was visible on the walls of the room. It was a relatively simple yet very strong work. As all the previously mentioned works, it related to film and cinema, exemplifying the illusory power of cinematic ‘electric shadows’. However the artwork was not the only entertaining thing to watch in this room. It was equally entertaining (but at second thought, it was rather tragicomic, or even sad) to observe the gallery visitors who repeatedly tried to use their cameras (with flash) to capture the shadows moving across the walls of the room: Their behavior was a proof of how easy it is to be fooled by what one sees, and how little effort we usually make to understand the source and motivation of images that surround us.
Lester has definitely put thought and effort into the artworks. While the two main dark spaces of the show were quite dignified, the passage between them and the middle space was a bit awkward. Thus the overall feeling was more that of two separate works and a passage than that of a ‘show’. Nevertheless, given that two of three artworks were rather strong in meaning, they were able to carry the overall idea. It was nice how the works related to the materially different work that Lester presented on the Documenta 13.