Theaster Gates

Dirty Red, 2016

Decommissioned fire hose, wood
Five panels, overall dimensions: 60 x 260 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (152.4 x 661.7 x 19.1 cm)

Lune Rouge Collection

Like Title TBC, also on view in this installation, Dirty Red is part of Gates’s Civil Tapestry series of works that comprise decommissioned fire hoses. Here the scale of the work requires the viewer to distance oneself, making it more difficult to see the material and make the connection between the fire hose and its associations with civil rights struggles—the burning of black churches and, more specifically, the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. From a distance, Dirty Red recalls the abstract monochrome paintings of Frank Stella, for which the width of the stripes were determined by the dimensions of the lumber used for the canvas stretchers. In Gates’s version, the width of the flattened fire hose determines the width of the “stripe” and the material is freed from its fraught associations, becoming one element of an abstract composition. The title can be read as an allusion to the fire truck, traditionally red in color, but could also allude to racist slang terminology used to describe a person’s complexion. Like the phrase “High Yellow” (also a title of Gates’s Civil Tapestry from 2012), “Dirty Red” is a derogatory idiom that categorizes people based on appearance within a social hierarchy. Gates is known to use evocative titles for his works, creating tension by invoking phrases that have racial connotations. But Dirty Red can also be read as a physical description of the wall-based sculpture—the red fire hose has faded over time and certain areas contain dirt and residue from years of use. 

Exhibition:

February 17 - April 28, 2018

Established in April 2015, the Nasher Prize is the most significant award in the world dedicated exclusively to contemporary sculpture. It is presented annually to a living artist who has had an extraordinary impact on our understanding of the art form.