Exhibitions

GABRIEL LESTER: MELANCHOLIA IN ARCADIA

Knoxville Museum of Art / 1050 World’s Fair Park Dr. June 20 - August 29th

Gabriel Lester

In the first of an ongoing series of contemporary art installations at the Eugenia Williams House, the Knoxville Museum of Art has invited Dutch artist Gabriel Lester to present a re-imagined version of his 2011 sculpture Melancholia in Arcadia. This haunting work was first displayed in Istanbul as a dedication to Lester’s dear friend, Huseyin Bahri Alptekin, who passed away in 2007. The title of the work is identical to a series of photographs Huseyin shot in Odessa, Ukraine, showing curtains fluttering softly within domestic spaces. These images inspired Lester’s installation of stiffened lace curtains, frozen in time and space. Beyond the technical feat of making this happen, 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 entering a room, mysteriously lifting the curtains to announce its presence.

Both the concept and composition of this work furnish an evocative connection with the life and house of Eugenia Williams, which are intertwined. Lester’s Melancholia recalls the losses Eugenia experienced. By the time a teenage Eugenia and her father moved to Lyons View Pike in 1916, her mother and two younger siblings had died. After her father’s death and her divorce, Eugenia boldly razed her father’s farmhouse to build the present house on this site. The spirit of this independent and mysterious woman suffuses the home she created for herself, just as Lester’s billowing curtains suggest an otherworldly presence in its halls.

By presenting Lester’s work for this particular space, we open up a captivating alchemy that elevates both the installation as well as the surrounding architecture.