Here's One Confederate Flag That Shouldn't Be Taken Down - an inspired work of art...

[Surya Gayatri]

Artist Sonya Clark uses the symbol to evoke the slow, patient work of unraveling racism.

In the wake of the tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina, one might not expect to see a Confederate battle flag solemnly hanging in the heart of New York City. But along with reflecting a history of hatred, racism, and violence, this particular flag—on display with tattered, red, white, and blue threads dangling—tells a different story.

Beside it sits the remnants of a separate flag, now reduced to red, white, and blue piles of fabric. The two pieces on display at the Mixed Greens gallery, called "Unraveling" and "Unraveled," were pulled apart by hand by artist Sonya Clark to symbolize the work needed to be done to undo the legacies of racism, prejudice, and injustice, emblemized by the flags.


"Unraveling" and "Unraveled" on display in New York City


A 2010 piece by Sonya Clark

Clark, a textile artist who serves as the Department Chair of Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, often tackles issues of race and identity in her work. Compelled by the news of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, Clark was inspired to make a piece that would speak to both the current issues and the long history of racism in America.

On April 9, on the 150 year anniversary of the end of the Civil War, she began pulling apart a Confederate flag. Piece-by-piece, string-by-string, she and her studio assistants undid the heavy woven fabric until it became something unrecognizable. The result, and the act of unraveling, serve as an important metaphor.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/06/sonya-clark-unraveling-confederate-flag

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Excellent read about the artist and her work.

[KittyWampus]

1. As a textile artist, this really appeals to me.

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Isn't it amazing. SO powerful.

[blondie58]

3. This is incredibly!

Amazing how such simplicity can Mean so much.

[abelenkpe]

4. VCU

Good art school in the middle of Richmond. This is a perfect piece for the area and our time. Good job!

[BumRushDaShow]

5. The fight is to get the symbol off of government property

If people want to make a bandana out of it or some work of art, that's their perogative.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Egg-xactly! Who gives a damn what they do with it elsewhere--

sleep with it in their arms, wrap their gunzzz in it, astro-turf their front yard with it, make cutesy clothes for their spawn with it.

Just get it the hell out of the 'commons' which belongs to all of us.

[CherokeeDem]

27. Thank you....

I m a Southerner who does not and never has embraced this flag. I want the flag and what it represents gone from government property and off symbols of government.

What the idiots all across this country want to identify themselves as such is their business.

[Spazito]

6. Both pieces shown in your OP are very powerful...

The second one drew me back to look at it repeatedly and each time I saw even more meaning in it than the previous time.

Thanks for posting this.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. My pleasure, Spazito. Glad you enjoyed it.

Powerful and moving...truly inspired.

[TNNurse]

7. Excellent

This flag belongs in a museum. A museum is where we can learn history and hopefully learn from it. It should never be on a public building of any kind...not a city, county or state building....and certainly not a school.

These are a good lesson.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. 'It should never be on a public building of any kind...'

It was the flag of a faction which waged war against the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, fer chrissakes.

[Adrahil]

10. Awsome! Thanks! n/t

[Surya Gayatri]

12. ...

[Panich52]

13. Proof that it's a racist symbol lies in its designer's description:

From Twitter:

@DyjstraDame: To those claiming the Confederate Flag's sentimental, not racist, it's creator William Thompson disagrees. #FreeBree pic.twitter.com/KIDYQL4twS




8:50pm - 27 Jun 15


•••

Want to tell us more about that 'heritage' argument?

[Surya Gayatri]

16. "...fighting to maintain the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man..."

Excellent find. Thanks for bringing it over here.

How DARE they play the innocent victim whose cultural heritage is being 'exterminated' (direct quote).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026916069

'We are being exterminated': Hundreds rally in favor of Confederate flag

[Omaha Steve]

14. Now my tapestry's unraveling

CAROLE KING LYRICS
"Tapestry"

My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue
An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view
A wondrous, woven magic in bits of blue and gold
A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold

Once amid the soft silver sadness in the sky
There came a man of fortune, a drifter passing by
He wore a torn and tattered cloth around his leathered hide
And a coat of many colors, yellow-green on either side

He moved with some uncertainty, as if he didn't know
Just what he was there for, or where he ought to go
Once he reached for something golden hanging from a tree
And his hand came down empty

Soon within my tapestry along the rutted road
He sat down on a river rock and turned into a toad
It seemed that he had fallen into someone's wicked spell
And I wept to see him suffer, though I didn't know him well

As I watched in sorrow, there suddenly appeared
A figure gray and ghostly beneath a flowing beard
In times of deepest darkness, I've seen him dressed in black
Now my tapestry's unraveling - he's come to take me back
He's come to take me back

[Surya Gayatri]

17. Excellent parallel, OS! Adore that album and song!

[mainer]

15. It really needs an almost fully unraveled swastika beside it

to emphasize the point.

[Surya Gayatri]

18. Yes, juxataposed. The color scheme would be striking.

[bullwinkle428]

19. Genuine artists never cease to amaze with their creative talents.

K&R.

[Surya Gayatri]

21. She's made the sinister into something sublime...

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Another artist to take note of is John Sims who recently did Confederate Flag burning preformances

His work is really interesting and diverse and mathematical and his website is extremely compelling, to find his Confederate Flag oriented work click past the intro page and pick the flag series, but I urge everyone to look at all of the things coming out of his mind and hands.....

http://johnsimsprojects.com/home4.html

[Surya Gayatri]

22. Thanks for the link. Will look over there later.

[procon]

23. The flag on the bottom is just breathtaking.

The shocking, harsh black lines and holes that rip through the flag and shred the fabric are like raw lashes and gunshots, destroying the falsehood that it was ever meant represent a heritage for bruised white pride.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. "...raw lashes...' like the whip-marks on a slave's back.

Damning and devastating.

[ladyVet]

25. I can support this! Awesome thing to do. :) nt

[Surya Gayatri]

26. So deceptively simple, yet potent.