Theaster Gates

The banner waves calmly
01.10–02.16.2019
Room 1

Looking at the legacy of Black images and the making of cultural moments through visual platforms, The Banner Waves Calmly unfolds as an iteration of Theaster Gates’ ongoing relationship with archival material while unpacking the meaning of its production. Understanding the need to retrieve and care for archival material as much as making creative decisions about their use, the artist’s practice makes a point of mediating the formation of narratives and the systemic confrontations of their survival. At the curatorial invitation of Centre CLARK, and as part of an exchange with the artist, this project by guest curator Daisy Desrosiers takes on the nomenclature of images and questions visibility. As part of the artist’s process, which triggers the status of what is made visible, tangible and acknowledged, this image-based work is rooted in the belief that images are resilient in their capacity to (un)cover and yet be the document of new perspectives. Pursuing ongoing investigations around the performativity of material (such as advertising, as well as collections and archives) and their rendering in daily experiences, The Banner Waves Calmy is concerned with the politics of representation and racial constructions embedded in visual and popular cultures.

– Daisy Desrosiers