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Showing Original Post only (View all)Here's One Confederate Flag That Shouldn't Be Taken Down - an inspired work of art... [View all]
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 flagon display with tattered, red, white, and blue threads danglingtells 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.
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Here's One Confederate Flag That Shouldn't Be Taken Down - an inspired work of art... [View all]
Surya Gayatri
Jun 2015
OP
"...fighting to maintain the heaven ordained supremacy of the white man..."
Surya Gayatri
Jun 2015
#16
Another artist to take note of is John Sims who recently did Confederate Flag burning preformances
Bluenorthwest
Jun 2015
#20