Theaster Gates Opening Night Performance at Boots Contemporary Art Space

The opening of the Theaster Gates exhibition, Holiness: In 3 Parts, was a night filled with 3 dynamic performances. Orron Kenyatta, started the evening off with lyrical poetry. The Zion Temple Baptist Church Choir, from St. Louis, then uplifted us with powerful gospel songs. Part three is when Theaster Gates and The Black Monks of Mississippi performed songs that told the story of Dave the slave potter. These performances were surrounded by Gate’s minimal sculptures that were constructed out of objects that he found in his own backyard. Also included in the exhibit are two shoeshine chairs and a video of shining shoes accompanied by a Buddhist-like audio chant. If you missed the opening don’t worry below is a video that contains highlights from the evening.   Holiness: In 3 Parts will be on display until 10.16.2009. For more information please click on the link

Boots Contemporary Art Space
2307 Cherokee St. • St Louis, MO • 63118 • 314.773.2281  www.bootsart.com                                                                   WED and SAT NOON- 5PM

Boots fall opening exhibition Theaster Gates

Opening reception: Friday, September 18th - 6:30 - 10pm

photo: Sara Pooley

Holiness: In 3 Parts, a solo exhibition at Boots will give Theaster an opportunity to work through ideas surrounding the psychic space of the back yard. On opening night, with help from his performance ensemble, The Black Monks of Mississippi, Gates will bring charismatic structures of the black church into brief conversation with the formalities of City Planning Policy.

 Performance will begin at 7:42 and last till 8:53

 Part 1: The Westside Piece (Front Space) 7:42- 7:52 (Theaster and possibly Orron Kenyatta -poet)

Part 2: The Glorious Picnic (Front of the back) 7:52- 8:40 (Black Monks of Mississippi)

Part 3: Stairwell to heaven and Other things from my backyard (Back of the back Space) 8:40-8:53 (Monastic Funk Band)

“Holiness in three parts could be thought of in the following way: Heaven, Hood and the City - using sculptural objects made from things in my backyard, we will move between these three loosely prescribed categories. With “The City” representing hell and the hood being somewhere between paradise and the underworld, I hope to consider three different presentation formats, in three different parts of the space in what would appear to be a Joseph Beuys styled performance that uses the black religious form to deliver thoughts on new urbanism, slave labor via the embodiment of Dave the slave potter and the history of the racialized bodythrough performance. Holiness in three parts is literally a trinity of confusion and urban rumination. Lots of stones will be left unturned, but those turned will get a good shining”

Theaster Gates

Tea Shack- photo by Sara Pooley

about Theaster Gates

Sculptor and Performance Artist, Theaster Gates works with the sacred city found just below its forgotten and often abandoned exterior. With parts of old buildings and visions of grand rehab projects, Gates, a believer in the possibility of place, begins to release some of the resonate beauty of the city’s under belly in a way that is both contemplative and frenetic.

for more info on Theaster Gates click on the link

for more info on boots click on the link