Black Vessel for a Saint

[3] Seeking a home for the life-size statue, Gates temporarily displayed St. Laurence in Venice, Italy, and Bregenz, Austria, before receiving his commission for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in 2017.

[3] Seeing his new commission as a perfect opportunity to find St. Laurence a permanent home, Gates added the statue to the exterior vessel's center just before the Garden's reopening in June 2017.

These salvaged bricks - many coming from the same demolished church as the piece's central St. Laurence statue - were then ground down and painted black.

With his book and quill in hand, St. Laurence serves as a reminder to never neglect the past, and thus furthers the space as a sanctuary for thought and reflection, just as Gates designed it to be.

In undertaking the difficult task of repurposing the salvaged materials into the piece's black brick, Gates estimated he employed between 200 and 500 workers in southern and western Chicago.