Black Forest Library (Special Project) at 1-54 New York May 13–17
Black Forest Library (Special Project) at 1-54 New York May 13–17
An Artist Survived Today
2024
An artist survived today
2024
Nylon appliqué banner, d-rings
80 x 60 in (203.2 x 152.4 cm)
2024
Nylon appliqué banner, d-rings
80 x 60 in (203.2 x 152.4 cm)
This work is part of my Survived Today, my series in which I remix the NAACP’s "A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY," flag to a “A MAN SURVIVED TODAY,” subverting the message from a notification of death into a proclamation of life. In other iterations, “MAN” is replaced with “WOMAN” and a spectrum of intersecting identities—including children, queer and trans people, and artists.
A recurring strategy in my practice is sampling cultural artifacts—from assemblages to phrases— and entangling them in alternative realities. In this series, this process acknowledges the many casualties of the system while affirming its survivors. Like the closing lines of Lucille Clifton's "won't you celebrate with me"—"that everyday / something has tried to kill me / and has failed"—my flags serve as monuments for daily survival. In this site-specific iteration, I replace "MAN" with "ARTIST," in response to the exhibition title “NEW YORK… NOW.”