Theaster Gates is a Chicago-based artist, urban planner and self-proclaimed preacher — he redeems spaces, artifacts and materials that have been forgotten and overlooked. Trained in urban planning and preservation, Gates reimagines these elements in order to build community and propel social progress. In addition to his art work, Gates has a non-profit called the Rebuild Foundation that manages numerous revitalization projects on Chicago’s South Side. He was greatly influenced by the music of Black churches, and this spiritual sensibility permeates his work. Although his art addresses the injustices people of color experience in America, his work never seems to accuse or demean. Rather, he repositions objects and spaces, which challenge and gradually transform our perceptions — revealing possibilities and the “life within things.”
The work shown here, Hose for Fire and Other Tragic Encounters, is one piece in a series entitled Civil Tapestries, fashioned from decommissioned fire hoses. The work conjures images of civil rights activists being injured by the blasts of water from fire hoses, tools that ironically are intended to save and protect life. It alludes to the numerous church burnings and the 1963 church bombing of the 16thStreet Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The work transforms these overlooked tools, which bear witness to these events, into a compelling, beautiful, non-violent, modern abstract composition. Here is an excerpt of a hymn entitled “A New Song” that accompanied this work, written by Gates himself: “Where the heat is … to give whatever I can: a hymn of protest, a candy bar, a quiet listening, an altar, an offering. When there are no more protests needed, that day, I’ll sing a new song.”