Monument Lab Live: In Pursuit of the Confederate Truce Flag
March 13, 2019
Taken from the Slought Foundation
Join textile and social practice artist Sonya Clark in a public conversation with Artistic Director/Host Paul Farber for a live recording of the Monument Lab Podcast. Together, they will explore Clark’s research informing her upcoming exhibition at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, ‘Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know,’ on view March 29 – August 4, 2019. In presenting this exhibition, Clark questions: “Why do we know the Confederate Battle Flag instead of the Confederate Truce Flag that marked surrender, brokered peace, and was a promise of reconciliation? What would it mean to the psychology of this nation if the Truce Flag replaced the flag associated with hate and white supremacy?”
Clark investigates the legacy of symbols and challenges the power of propaganda, erasures, and omissions. By making the Truce Flag into a monumental alternative to the infamous Confederate Battle Flag and its pervasive divisiveness, the exhibition instigates a role reversal and aims to correct a historical imbalance. FWM is housed in a former flag factory, a particularly fitting place to ask questions about the symbolic power cloth can hold in the consciousness of our nation. ‘Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know’ is a timely catalyst for dialogue about the scars of the Confederacy and America’s ability to acknowledge and reckon with racial injustice.
The first fifty people to arrive will receive a keepsake from FWM as a memento of this event.