In autumn 2017 Gabriel Lester was invited by the Pelican Plus Tenants & Residents Association and the South London Gallery, to propose a new public artwork for Pelican Estate.
After conversations with residents and SLG staff, Gabriel proposed Trek, a work that playfully reinterprets the bollard street furniture in the paved area below Crane House.
When seen from the block above this group of sculptures, coloured to resemble birds of paradise, are designed to appear as if they are being blown in the wind. From the ground they look like foreign bodies in motion, alien newcomers passing through the Pelican Estate. Trek is an artwork about the politics of migration.
Trek is part of Open Plan, the SLG’s long term public art and education project with residents living on Elmington, Pelican and Sceaux Gardens estates.
Biography
Gabriel Lester’s artwork, films and installations originate from a desire to tell stories. After studying cinema and eventually fine arts, Gabriel’s practice has come to embrace a number of different mediums, from film to large scale architectural installations. His work either comes from a narrative starting point or an explicitly visual one, or both. Gabriel’s work proposes ways to relate to the world, how it is presented and what mechanisms effect our perception and understanding of it.
Trek is supported by the Freelands Foundation, the Mondriaan Fund and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.