shot taken on my phone
I was staring at this art of Theaster Gates for about 20 minutes and the first thing that I noticed is that it was made from pretty much discarded materials (terracota, maggia gneiss, iron plate, Louis Sullivan building fragment, and wood).
I have never encountered those types of materials before. That makes it special for me and perfectly matches Gates's art that comprises sculpture, assemblage, installation, ceramics, architecture, video and music as well. This work would not seem that special if the artist would choose to make it from regular materials, it would less valuable, because anybody would be able to copy it and make the same thing. This work is unordinary and I pretty impossible to copy.
Thank you for your post.