Creative Time’s Political ‘Pledges of Allegiance’
LaToya Ruby Frazier and Nari Ward Among 16 Artists Participating in Creative Time’s Political ‘Pledges of Allegiance’
by Victoria Valentine
Flags have proven to be a powerful medium in contemporary art, from David Hammons’s “African American Flag” (1990), which sold at Phillips auction for more than $2 million, to Dread Scott’s “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” (2015) displayed last summer at Jack Shainman Gallery, and Nu Barreto’s “Desunited States of Africa” (2010) flag on view last month at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
The banners are moving works of art and powerful symbols of cultural pride, protest, and resistance. They also serve as vehicles for engagement. A new Creative Time project capitalizes on these attributes. “Pledges of Allegiance” is a series of flags commissioned from 16 contemporary artists, including LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jayson Musson, and Nari Ward.
“We realized we needed a space to resist that was defined not in opposition to a symbol, but in support of one, and so we created a permanent space. The flag seemed an ideal form to build that space around both practically and symbolically,” said Nato Thompson, artistic director of Creative Time.
Courtesy of: Culture Type
