brick, granite, Cor-Ten steel, concrete statue of St. Laurence covered with roofing membrane
Dimensions
280 x 192 inches exeterior dimension
Accession Number
2017.11
Credit Line
Commissioned with funds provided by the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, the Martin and Brown Foundation, the Butler Family Fund, the Justin Smith Purchase Fund, and Marilyn and Larry Fields, 2017
Make Enquiry
For more information about this or other artworks in the collection, contact library.archives@walkerart.org.
For reproductions for publishing and/or commercial use, please see our terms of use or submit a
request.
A Spiritual Belief in the Life of Things: Victoria Sung on Theaster Gates’s Assembly Hall
“How do we deal with abandonment, ruin, decay? How do we start to imagine ourselves as deeper caretakers of the things that exist in the world?” In his art, Theaster Gates reuses, reinterprets, and reimagines objects that have been abandoned, neglected, or forgotten to call attention to the potential that exists in the material world around us. Exhibition curator Victoria Sung introduces the collections that anchor the four rooms of Theaster Gates: Assembly Hall: a university's archive of art historical glass slides, a selection of material from the publishing company behind Jet and Ebony magazines, a collection of racist memorabilia, and a facsimile of Gates's own clay studio.
Creating Space for the Possibility of a Sacred Moment: Theaster Gates on Black Vessel for a Saint
"Whether people are believers in the sacred or not, can architecture, design, the arts create a moment where you feel like you're touching something that is bigger than my humanity or your humanity?" In anticipation of the opening of Theaster Gates: Assembly Hall, we share a discussion with Gates on Black Vessel for a Saint, a sculptural installation commissioned by the Walker in 2017 for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, in which Gates discusses the secular-sacred, Black entrepreneurship, and how a traveling statue of St. Laurence finally found a permanent home.
