Serpentine Pavilion 2022 Black Chapel by Theaster Gates

Austere Pavilion at the Serpentine gallery designed by Theaster Gates.

I always enjoy coming to this annual installation and this year's is large and impressive. It’s less open than other years but I love the vista through it and the deep, dark space it creates.

Outside there is wood at the bottom and a soft metal like zinc round the top but inside it is all lined in back wood. There are benches around the walls with a lovely set of seven silvered pictures on one side.

Reading the commentary it references ceramic kilns both from Stoke on Trent and America as well as various African buildings and the Rothko chapel. I love the fact the pictures are made with a roofing technique as a nod to Gates father who was a roofer.

Outside the structure is a bell salvaged from St. Laurence, a landmark Catholic Church that once stood in Chicago's South Side where Gates was born.

Closes 16 October 2022


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