“Theaster Gates’s House Museum: A Bold New Transformation”
**Theaster Gates: Reviving Black American Culture through the Johnson Publishing Archive**
In true Theaster Gates fashion, innovation meets memory as he reinterprets and reimagines Black American identity through his latest exhibition, *When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive*. This immersive experience transforms the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago into a treasure trove of history—complete with custom furniture, archives, fragments, and novel artwork derived from the legacy of Johnson Publishing Company (JPC). Vibrant and bold, Gates’s work underscores how art can preserve, reinterpret, and celebrate cultural heritage.
### **Johnson Publishing Company: Champions of Black Media**
Founded in 1942 by John H. and Eunice Johnson, Johnson Publishing Company climbed to the pinnacle of Black-owned media. Anchoring itself with publications such as *Ebony* and *Jet*, it chronicled the triumphs, artistry, challenges, and societal impact of Black Americans during a period where representation was scarce. At its height, JPC wasn’t just a publishing empire; it was a purveyor of Black pride, offering a window into a world of achievement and resilience that challenged mainstream narratives.
Though JPC’s story took a financial downturn in the 2010s, its cultural significance lives on in Gates’s exhibition, which salvages and elevates remnants of its historical archive to reimagine its role in documenting Black identity.
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### **The Exhibition: Immersion in Culture and Creativity**
Housed in all three floors of the meticulously restored Stony Island Arts Bank, Gates’s exhibition uses the detritus of the JPC headquarters to construct whimsical yet reverential visual narratives. From blown-up *Ebony* fashion photography to everyday office furnishings, Gates’s arrangements transcend archival display, creating kinetic environments where art, history, and design converge.
1. **Artifacts and Artworks:**
The exhibit features vintage furniture, architectural fragments, and sculptures Gates crafted using actual JPC periodicals. In one standout piece, a modern bas-relief constructed from bound copies of *Jet* magazine becomes a literal layering of Black history.
2. **”Facsimile Cabinet of Women Origin Stories”:**
At the Arts Bank entrance stands a striking installation—an open shelving system housing 800 framed photographs of Black women from the *Ebony* and *Jet* archives. Visitors are invited to examine these moments in time—from glamorous fashion shoots to intimate community settings—and choose which photos to display. The artwork provides an interactive take on archives as a living, dynamic process.
3. **Unfiltered Tableaux:**
Gates’s curated scenes blur the line between high art and everyday objects. Whether it’s John H. Johnson’s gym equipment arranged to mimic minimalist sculpture or red crocodile-upholstered cabinets elevating African metalwork, many of these design vignettes feel like Black cultural history made tactile and interactive.
4. **Absence of Didactics:**
Interestingly, Gates forgoes traditional captions and wall labels, leaving context intentionally elusive. This curatorial decision prioritizes immersive engagement over rigid interpretation. While this creative freedom highlights imaginative reuse, a deeper reverence for African-American contributions within modern design and media history might benefit from more framing.
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### **Stony Island Arts Bank: A Beacon for Cultural Preservation**
The exhibition exists within Gates’s larger venture to revitalize the South Side of Chicago. Purchased from the city for a symbolic $1, the Stony Island Arts Bank is the crown jewel of Gates’s Rebuild Foundation, his nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming vacant buildings into hubs of cultural activity.
More than an exhibition hall, the Arts Bank houses archives including:
– The Edward J. Williams Collection, infamous for its 4,000 preserved objects of racist memorabilia now re-contextualized as tools for discourse.
– Frankie Knuckles’ vast vinyl collection celebrating the legacy of house music.
– A 12,000-volume library from JPC, chronicling decades of journalism targeted at Black audiences.
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### **Preserving Identity through Reuse**
What sets Theaster Gates apart is his unique ability to creatively repurpose artifacts, rescuing them from obscurity while imbuing them with new meaning. The exhibition actively resists treating archives as static relics, instead pushing them into the future. This philosophy is especially poignant given the cultural erasure that often plagues Black narratives.
His whimsical yet thoughtful reorganization of JPC’s remnants challenges traditional archival practices, asking audiences to rethink how history is preserved and who gets to tell it.
One powerful exception to his method of imaginative reinterpretation is the reconstructed gazebo from Tamir Rice’s tragic story. Placed on the lawn of the Arts Bank, this replica preserves a stark moment of reckoning with systemic violence against Black youth—a testament to Gates’s ability to blend artistic freedom with reverence and respect where history demands it.
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