Jefferson Pinder is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the theme of corrosion. His installation Gust, shown in the exhibition "A Tale of Today: Materialities" at the Driehaus Museum, is a large speaker made from rusted tin tiles salvaged from the Bridgeport neighborhood. These weathered materials reflect both physical decay and the erosion of social systems that have marginalized communities over time.

Gust is installed in the mansion's former smoking room, a space once reserved for the elite. The speaker plays an 18-minute loop combining the voice of George W. Johnson—the first African American to record commercially—with ambient sounds from the Gilded Age. This juxtaposition brings excluded voices into a historically exclusive space, inviting reflection on the erasure and distortion of cultural memory.

Through its use of corroded materials and archival sound, Gust evokes what Pinder calls "haunted beauty." The piece asks viewers to confront both physical and symbolic deterioration—what has been lost, ignored, or edited out—and to consider how history persists in the materials and spaces around us.