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.
