Lawrence Lek

 

QE3
2016 / stills from full HD video, stereo sound, 20 min 21 sec. Glasgow International 2016.
Director’s Programme at Tramway, Curated by Sarah McCrory. 08.04.16 – 22.05.16.

 

During the 2062 Glasgow International Festival, a sculptor brings the QE2 ocean liner back from Dubai, to turn the vessel into a new home for the fire-damaged Glasgow School of Art. Designed and built amid the social and industrial upheaval of the 1960s, the luxury liner returns to a city undergoing extensive change under the auspices of urban regeneration.

From its moorings in Dubai, the ship passes through the Suez Canal, encountering refugee boats in the Mediterranean, oil rigs in the North Sea, and the post-industrial cityscape of Glasgow. A soundtrack by cellist and composer Oliver Coates accompanies the ship on its final European cruise. Continuing Lek’s use of architectural media as a means of social critique, this site-specific simulation transforms the QE2 from a symbol of heavy industry into an institution for art.

 

 

QE3
2016 / stills from full HD video, stereo sound, 20 min 21 sec. Glasgow International 2016.
Director’s Programme at Tramway, Curated by Sarah McCrory. 08.04.16 – 22.05.16.