"One hundred-foot-long long American flags waft over gas stations next to highways in the middle of nowhere. American flags are flown on garages in suburbs. They sprout on poles in front of pizza shops in Brooklyn. They are unfurled on entire football fields. They fly off the back of fire trucks. They advertise chocolate chip cookies. American flag pins and pens. Flag underwear. Flags on shopping bags."
"While many in the US fetishise the flag and it is ubiquitous, it is also the flag that flew over the Supreme Court that ruled in the 1857 Dred Scott decision: "There are no rights that a black person has that a white man is bound to respect." It was the flag that the US Cavalry carried in to battle as it committed genocide against the Indigenous population."
"On 25 August, President Trump promulgated an executive order "". He and his lawyers know that this order is unconstitutional. In addition to the obvious attempt to suppress dissent, issuing this edict also declares Trump's open contempt for the rule of law and is an assertion that his authority, and that of the executive branch, is the law of the land."
Americans display the flag in uniquely ubiquitous and commercial ways across everyday life, from huge flags over gas stations to flag-branded consumer goods. The flag has flown over institutions and rulings tied to slavery and racial exclusion and has accompanied genocide against Indigenous peoples, white supremacist pageantry, and the use of nuclear weapons. Millions of people at home and abroad hate the flag and what it represents. Artists including Jasper Johns, Faith Ringgold, and Leon Golub use the flag in their work to engage with that history. On 25 August, President Trump promulgated an executive order that his lawyers know is unconstitutional and that asserts executive authority over dissent. The Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson protected flag burning as symbolic speech, and Congress then passed the Flag Protection Act of 1989.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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