GATE 14 Composite Training triangulates rigorous fitness, progressive psychology, and cultural inquiry under one 2,000 square foot roof. Built by hand in 2018, GATE 14 emerged as the result of a garage-based practice whose increasing membership outgrew its humble beginnings. Named for a Chevron gate that demarcated the end of a particularly strenuous hill used in many of the protocols, GATE 14 was founded on the Donald Barthelme ethos espoused in his seminal essay “Not-Knowing”. In essence, this is a far more than a “gym.” It is a place to challenge notions of what we think we are capable of, and to practice physically the concept of finding a healthy, efficient, manageable path through the confusion of our daily lives.

Built over two months in the late summer of 2018 by Alfred Brown IV, Ediz Basol, Nick Troutman, Kevin Halcomb, and a slew of other volunteers, GATE 14 has evolved into a cornerstone of the local community. It continues to expand and explore the role of physical fitness in our modern society, and has positioned its patented Composite Training method as an antidote to the stale state of fitness affairs. Workouts are inspired by art, literature, music, film, and other cultural touchstones, and seek to grow a larger sense of how our physical bodies intersect with the limits of human possibility.

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Pre-orders are now being accepted for Cultural Materials #001, our inaugural publication. HOME LESS is a hardbound monograph containing 82 full-color, medium format photographs made by Alfred Brown IV over more than a decade of travel around the globe. Flung far and wide, this work moves well beyond simple documentation to make a strong argument for a slower, more considered approach to image making at a time when modern technologies have created would-be photographers of us all. His is an interrogative lens, searching repeatedly for those quiet moments that suggest unexpected parallels between places as disparate as Kuala Lumpur, rural Georgia, and the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in Iceland. The recurrent composition of these photographs—through windows, for instance, or by framing that creates strict horizontal thirds—creates intuitive connections from one image to the next, and suggests the gentle awe of a man trying to make sense of the turbulent world he's inherited. Ultimately, it is an attempt to redefine "home" not by a static physical geography but, rather, as an incessant, endless metaphysical state of wonder.

We are proud to begin our imprint's own larger investigation of contemporary culture and its numerous (perhaps less celebrated) spoils with this book. In many ways, HOME LESS embodies the spirit of our operation writ large: curious, rigorous, and consummately skeptical. Cultural Materials will forgo a rote, predictable response to the uneasy times in which it was conceived and, instead, hopes to ask both of its artists and audience the sort of open-ended questions that make being alive more interesting and worthwhile. While we begin here with a traditional monograph, future projects include vinyl recordings, tattoo sessions, and one-off pre-fixe meals. We hope to document work that challenges, to publish imperfect art by unsung artists, and to consistently wonder how else culture might be defined. HOME LESS represents the first iteration of a continuing experiment in both form and content, and one we are excited, with its publication, to begin.

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