Black Vessel: Theaster Gates

“Black Vessel” centers on the ways in which human beings have developed strategies for protection, containment, and gathering. Focusing on the role of clay, craft, and the human hand in creating early technologies, “Black Vessel” connects artist and social innovator Theaster Gates’s practice to the endeavor of leveraging skill and ingenuity to make our days better on Earth. With perspectives rooted in design intelligence, Black architectural practice, and Japanese craft history, Gates, together with Mabel O. Wilson, Mohsen Mostafavi and Chelsea Foxwell, explores the idea of the vessel as an architectural, artistic, and conceptual device that governs the arc of our lives.

Panelists:
Theaster Gates, artist and social innovator
Chelsea Foxwell, author and scholar, University of Chicago Department of Art History
Mohsen Mostafavi, architect and educator, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Mabel O. Wilson,architect, scholar, author, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Program Schedule:
Doors Open at 5:30
Program Starts at 6pm
Reception from 8 to 8:30pm

Image courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and Theaster Gates Studio, photo by Gene Pittman.