Black artists express complicated relationship with U.S. flag in show honoring nation's 250th anniversary
Inspired by their lived experience and worldview, Black artists have reimagined one of the country’s most recognizable symbols in a new exhibition at Zhou B Art Center.
There are several depictions of the American flag at the “Glory! Glory!” show, which opened Friday. Some are missing stars, others hang upside down. One replaces the stars with tufts of cotton and the white stripes with African prints. Another, "American't" by Nnaemeka Ekwelum, is woven with plastic lacing material. It is also adorned with military dog tags bearing the names of Black children killed by police or otherwise harmed in the country.
“I like the idea of looking at this image and saying, ‘Something is off about this,’” said Ekwelum, 35, of Rogers Park. “And I think that's how we should feel when we look at the flag.”
The exhibition is on view at the Bridgeport venue Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., through March 20. It is part of Pigment International’s year-long programming, “America 250 — We ARE the people,” which honors the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding.
The Black-owned arts nonprofit is centering Black artists as part of the initiative, which is happening during a time fraught with political tension. The Trump administration is encouraging artistic celebrations of America’s 250th birthday as it dismantles civil rights protections and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for Black Americans. “Glory! Glory!” captures that dissonance with pieces by artists who say they are telling a full and complicated story of America.
“You can't divorce us from this history,” said Patricia Andrews-Keenan, founder of Pigment International. “I’m patriotic. Sometimes that can be a little bit of a conflict because I know the good parts of our history and I know the bad parts of our history, but it's still our history.”
The Trump administration is awarding National Endowment for the Arts grants for anniversary-based programming, but Pigment International was not selected as a grantee. The nonprofit was able to secure state funding from Rep. Kimberly du Buclet (D-Chicago), who chairs the Museum, Arts, Culture and Entertainment committee.
A different U.S. president is the focus of the “Glory! Glory!” exhibition’s centerpiece. Titled “44,” Robert Lewis Clark’s 11-by-8-foot mixed-media work featuring an image of Barack Obama on the American flag. The piece also includes 44 colorful wooden stars and red and white stripes painted over newspapers announcing Obama’s historic win in the 2008 presidential election.
“I wanted to inspire people to achieve their goals,” said Clark, 58, who created the piece more than a decade ago, when Obama was still in office. The Hyde Park native has since donated a print to the Obama Presidential Center.
But the art has prompted additional reflection in the current political moment, Clark said, pointing to the symbolism of the painted white stripes that don’t quite obscure the newspaper clippings.
“Our Black history is trying to be whitewashed, but it ain't going nowhere,” he said. “The red represents the blood that our ancestors [shed] putting this country together.”
Another politician, Stacey Abrams, is the subject of Paul Branton’s mixed-media piece, “Change Under Georgian Sky.” The portrait of the former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives features stars and stripes of the American flag, along with a miniature Confederate flag.
Citing Abrams' voting rights advocacy, which helped Joe Biden win Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, Branton said Abrams reminds him of Black Americans' continuous fight for justice.
“Being Black in America is basically being in love with someone that does not love you back,” said Branton, 52, of Beverly. “It’s trying to gain the attention and the admiration of someone that sometimes flirts with you and other times is very abusive to you.”
Artist Reggie McFly said he expresses that dichotomy in his piece, "In the Land of the Free." Using the flag as a backdrop, the acrylic painting reimagines "The Scourged Back," a famous Civil War-era photograph that shows the scars on the back of an enslaved man.
"I grew up listening to the national anthem and holding the flag in such high regard,” said McFly, a 37-year-old Roseland native. “But seeing the image of slavery, how could you ever disconnect the two? It was so brutal, and a lot of people lost their lives for what was supposed to be a symbol of freedom. Did that freedom ever include us?”
Artist Candace Hunter of Kenwood did not spend time wrestling with the answer.
"We have never really been included in the full understanding of the word 'American' by the people who own the word," she said.
Hunter said she wanted to emphasize the contributions of African Americans with her works in the exhibit. For "Heads/Hearts/Hands," she constructed a flag from mud cloth, and sashes from fashion designer Brenda Winstead, who specializes in African prints known as Damali wear. Hunter also included organza bags of cotton, which was cultivated by enslaved Africans. Her "Birth of a New Nation" piece features an American flag flowing out of a split in a hand-carved Makonde belly mask from Africa.
"This reality we're living through really goes to show that there are those who still see us as separate from them," she said, "and yet nothing they can do can be done without us and our history in this land."