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Documented artwork / paired architectural textile installation

america, america

Theaster Gates

Credit as documented: Theaster Gates

america, america is Theaster Gates’s pair of large tapestries made from decommissioned fire hoses for the South Terminal of Chicago’s 95th/Dan Ryan Red Line station. The work belongs to his Civil Tapestry series and uses a utilitarian material with a specific historical resonance. CTA connects the hoses to the violence directed at peaceful African-American civil-rights demonstrators in Birmingham in May 1963. The station’s collection page dates the work 2018, while CTA’s unveiling announcement is dated April 8, 2019; the record preserves those different meanings. The pair was presented alongside Gates’s separate North Terminal audio space, An Extended Song of Our People. This entry covers only the South Terminal tapestries. It does not transfer the neighboring radio booth’s dimensions, operations or programming to the textile work.

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Documented work. Current availability, ownership and installation requirements must be confirmed with the artist.

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Verified artwork image for america, america
Verified artwork imageImage: transitchicago.com ↗©2026 Chicago Transit Authority (as credited at source)Photo by Aron Gent (as credited at source)

At a glance

Year / version
2018 (work date); unveiled April 8, 2019
Materials
decommissioned fire hoses
Documented setting
indoor
Dimensions
Not documented
Dimensions apply to
Not documented
Availability
Unconfirmed

Places & versions

Installation history

Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.

  1. Unveiled April 8, 2019; work dated 2018 by CTA

    95th/Dan Ryan Red Line station, South Terminal Building, Chicago, Illinois

    Site
    95th/Dan Ryan station, South Terminal Building
    City
    Chicago
    State / region
    IL
    Country
    United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
    Setting
    indoor
    Start date
    2019-04-08
    Date meaning
    documented

    Installation details checked 2026-10-17.

    Installation source

Materials and construction

CTA calls the pair large but does not publish measured dimensions or a separate artwork price in the reviewed pages. The terminal reconstruction budget is not an artwork budget.

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Sources