Please Don't Let It Be Too Close- Video links and exhibition shots
This photograph was used as the publicity image for Please Don’t Let It Be Too Close an exhibition in 2021 at SPACE in Cleveland, Ohio examining the 2020 U.S. election and the extraordinary circumstances of experiencing it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the midst of the lockdown and protests of 2020, I re-imagined the American flag as a tapestry of the year’s turmoil, resilience, and reckoning. I used blue fabric stretched across the canvas forms the background, signifying a unity the nation strives for, though fractured by history. Scattered across the upper left corner, I arranged gold tacks to replace the traditional stars, signifying the unequal distribution of resources amidst a pandemic that laid bare the nation’s divides.
Across the flag's body, I placed red threads in uneven lines mirroring the familiar stripes. Interspersed between these lines are books currently censored in a few states: Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks and The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House an essay by Audre Lorde. They lie stacked as part of this narrative, noting the futility of seeking liberation within the structures that oppress.
The Corn kernels evoke images of agriculture and sustenance. They serve as quiet reminders of the essential laborers who kept the nation fed during the lock down, often without recognition or fair compensation. Nearby, a disposable mask rests, crumpled but present—a haunting reminder of the public health crisis that redefined daily life and came to stand for the absence of those who were lost.
Near the center lies a small plastic hand, tiny and disconnected gesturing helplessness lost in the machinations of larger systems. In contrast, a photograph of a rocket stands at the bottom, as nuclear threat shadowing political decisions past and present.