Theaster Gates at Regen Projects

On view: September 14–November 2, 2019

“How do you catalogue the everyday, especially as the phenomena of the everyday is changing?” Theaster Gates asked this question a couple of years ago, and for his new exhibition at Regen Projects in Hollywood, he’s taken a unique approach to answering. The primary material used to create this new body of work was his own wardrobe. He transformed all of his clothes (T-shirts, suit jackets, and everything in between) into a collection of sculptural works. Oversized quilts, stacks of aprons, and piles of ascots hang on metal rods. Other metal forms are adhered to the walls and ceiling, transforming the utility of a clothing rack into a fantastical line drawing. While the work is whimsical at times, a recording of the artist singing a haunting and guttural vocal arrangement echoes through the gallery, offering emotion and desperation. Perhaps, here, fashion is used to point to industry, and all of its unsavory fallout.