西斯特·盖茨：黑人社区里的艺术家_时事

西斯特·盖茨：黑人社区里的艺术家

ON A LEAFY, OVERLOOKED BLOCK in south Chicago, amid a patchwork of weedy lots and fixer-upper bungalows, Theaster Gates is redefining what it means to make art.

在芝加哥南部一个绿树掩映、无人关注的街区，39岁的雕塑家、表演艺术家和城市规划师西斯特?盖茨(Theaster Gates)置身于一块块杂草丛生的土地和年久失修的平房之间，重新定义着艺术创作的意义。

When the recession hit a few years ago, this 39-year-old sculptor, performer and urban planner began buying boarded-up houses on the street where he lives in Grand Crossing - a hardscrabble, mostly black neighborhood that sits eight miles south of downtown Chicago. Gates started gutting the forlorn interiors of these spaces and using the domestic detritus to create haunting objects - from throne-like chairs made of clapboard siding to porch swings made from reconfigured door frames.

盖茨居住的街区位于格兰区(Grand Crossing)，这个社区在芝加哥市中心以南八英里处，非常贫穷，主要居民是黑人，几年前出现经济衰退时，盖茨开始在这条街上购买木板房。随后，盖茨着手对建筑物残破的内部进行拆除，并利用里面的废弃物创作震撼人心的作品──有用墙板制成的像宝座一样的椅子，还有用门框改造而成的秋千椅。

Then, in a move that left the jaded art world slack-jawed, he began transforming these spaces into cultural anchors - libraries, bookstores, music archives, a pop- up cafe - using workers he hired from the area, some of whom were previously unemployed.