Anti-heroes

The library of Gabriel Lester

Text: Dirk-Jan Arensman
Photography: Sven Signe den Hartogh

Interview

No. 7 • September 2017

Fig 1. Gabriel Lester. Foto: Sven Signe den Hartogh

DA:

What are you earliest reading memories?

GL:

'My father, an American born in New York who moved to the Netherlands four years before I was born, always read to me in English. Usually classic American children’s books, like the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, The Hardy Boys, and Davy Crockett.

The first book I read by myself was Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman, sometime between the ages of six and eight—I still remember the boys’ bedroom I read it in. What I remember most is the cover. And that pair of jeans, which fascinated me enormously as an object.'

DA:

The required reading list in high school: a joy or an ordeal?

GL:

‘I’m dyslexic, and maybe I was an ADHD kid too. In any case, I was a child with a vivid imagination who preferred inventing my own stories. It wasn’t until I attended a school for troubled children in Groningen, where they recognized that I was word-blind, that I stopped feeling ashamed of my slow reading pace and started reading more.’
Eén van de schrijvers die ik voor mijn lijst las was Belcampo, die ik via mijn Brusselse grootvader had ontmoet. Mijn grootouders zijn in 1944 vanuit de Amsterdam naar België gevlucht voor de nazi’s, en mijn grootvader, een kunstverzamelaar en intellectueel, was goed bevriend met de heer Belcampo, die destijds studentenarts in Groningen was. Ik weet nog dat ik als klein kind bij hem thuis kwam, in een huis aan een singel volgepakt met kranten en boeken. Het had iets heel spannends dat je zo’n man kende, en dan boeken van hem kon lezen.’

DA:

Has your taste changed much through the years?

GL:

‘Absolutely. In the beginning, I enjoyed reading thrilling stories. Later, books that are best described as “existentialist.” And over the past fifteen years, I’ve mainly been reading about subjects related to my artistic research: history, philosophy, literary fiction, or a book on mathematics.’

DA:

What was the last book that made you laugh?

GL:

‘Wild Talents (1932) by Charles Fort, an American of Dutch descent who, without being particularly superstitious himself, spent years collecting articles about unexplained phenomena from around the world. The film Magnolia is partly based on it. It reads like an absurd monument, as it goes completely overboard in listing those events.’

DA:

Which fictional character would you like to spend an evening with?

GL:

‘With Bazarov from Fathers and Sons by Turgenev, because I have a soft spot for anti-heroes. Bazarov is such a sharp and contrary thinker that you’re initially convinced he’s destined for greatness. But because he falls hopelessly in love and dies young, he never fulfills that potential. A noble person defeated by life.’

DA:

Which books have inspired you most?

GL:

‘Søren Kierkegaard’s Either/Or and The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire. These were books I identified with at a young age, and they gave me the confidence to start formulating my own ideas. Kierkegaard’s dualism resonates with what I do in my own work: presenting two poles and always leaving the truth somewhere in the middle, so the viewer can pick it up for themselves. Baudelaire is a sinister poet, but also someone who could depict the world around him in a strikingly sharp and realistic way.’

DA:

Which book do you recommend to others?

GL:

‘I’ve done a lot with hip hop and improvised poetry. For years, I’ve freestyled, including at the Bimhuis, where you work with language in a kind of stream-of-consciousness way. You can find that same cadence in Agapé Agape by William Gaddis. In it, a man on his deathbed reflects on his life, and as a reader, you’re swept into a kind of maelstrom. It almost feels like you’re reading poetry while tumbling down an avalanche on a mountain.’

DA:

Do you know poems by hard?

GL:

‘Not poems, but complete rap lyrics. Timebomb by Public Enemy, for example:
You go ooh and ahh when I jump in my car
People treat me like Kareem Abdul Jabbar
When I’m up to par, no matter who you are
I betcha go hip hop, hurray or hurrah…
I could go on like this for a while. And if it weren’t 10 in the morning and if I had a glass of wine, I’d probably do just that.’

DA:

What lies at your bedside table currently?

GL:

‘Among others, The Nix by Nathan Hill, on the recommendation of my father, who was very enthusiastic about Hill’s vital style and the way he describes a period in American history. And a book about the famous Hope Diamond. I’m considering making a film from the perspective of an object, and possibly from that of a diamond, an object that has truly lived through a story. Such a diamond, like the Hope Diamond or the Koh-i-Noor, has been owned by kings and maharajas, robbers and Nazi plunderers. A fascinating concept.’

Gabriel Lester (1972) is an audiovisual artist and filmmaker.