Have you seen Home on Apple TV? Property porn for the discerning palate, it’s a series that steps out of the shadow of commercial bling to present homes with heart, soul and integrity. I’m only on episode 2.  But I think I’ll stay there a while, smelling the air and savouring the view, because I have a new design icon: Theaster Gates from Chicago.  The man is an onion – multi layered, multi talented, he defies description in the best possible way.

 

 

He says, ‘I am interested in not only found objects but also in discarded knowledge.’  And I think it is this heart that pulls all his work together, whether it is sculpture, pots or interiors.  He takes his subject and embraces it’s original essence, unleashing the spirit within.

 

 

But even rarer, he doesn’t hoard this spirit – most of his work is on behalf of the community making and re-making community centres, cafes, communal art studios – He touches these places with gold and passes them on. His joy is seeing the connections they make and watching the creative seeds he plants grow.

 

 

To see a building taken back to it’s bones and that skeleton, age becoming a work of art in it’s own right is a beautiful thing.

 

 

To be in a building with a printing press at one end, an library in another, a potters studio in between and a record collection nestled somewhere else is to be in heaven.

 

(All pics Pinterest)

 

This man is an inspiration in its purest form.

 

Laters, Kate x