Putting the Confederate flag to rest

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For 15 years, multimedia conceptual artist John Sims has been confronting the racial history of the South through a project to reclaim the flag, music and text of the Confederacy.

His Recoloration Proclamation, first presented in 2000 as a Confederate flag recolored to black, red and green, the colors of the Black Liberation Movement, prompted protests and controversy when it was presented in Soho. And the controversy did not come just from the expected sources. African Americans were as outraged by the display of the Confederate flag as the Ku Klux Klan was by Sims' recoloring of it.

Conceptual artist John Sims prepares for Monday's "13 Flag Funerals" event. / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS

Conceptual artist John Sims prepares for Monday's "13 Flag Funerals" event. / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS

Things didn't go better in 2004 with Sims' "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag," an outdoor installation of the flag hanging from a noose on a 13-foot gallows, planned for the Schmucker Gallery at Gettysburg College. Sims wound up boycotting his own installation when it was moved indoors and the "burial" component was eliminated.

Now, combining Memorial Day and the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War (April 9, 1865), Sims is presenting "13 Flag Funerals," which with poetry, music and reflection will lay to rest Confederate flags in the 13 states represented by the 13 stars on the flag (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia). Thirteen poets will lead the funerals on the 13th hour of Memorial Day (1 p.m. Eastern time).

The various projects have gestated since Sims came from Connecticut to Florida to teach mathematics at Ringling College of Art and Design.

Artist John Sims / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS

Artist John Sims / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS

"I was really amazed by the proliferation of Confederate flags," said Sims, who lives and works in a studio space in Gillespie Park.

Inspired by the late 1990s brouhaha over the continued display of the Confederate flag over the state capitol in South Carolina, he wondered how he might respond as an artist.

"What are they really holding on to? What are the properties of ownership of Southern heritage?" he asked. "I started thinking about 'Dixie,' about the Confederate flag."

His Recoloration series has included a "drag flag" made from shocking pink fabric decorated with feathers and sequins (said project prompted an angry statement from the KKK accusing him of racism and erroneously calling Sims out as gay, which was news to his mother and to himself, he said, laughing). There also have been all-white and all-black flags.

"The flag is an article of identity, a symbol of identity," he said. "An icon can change; it can be reinterpreted. But certain symbols can be so contaminated that it's hard to do."

His Recoloration project has included remixes of the song "Dixie," performed by a wide range of artists, often in traditionally black musical styles, and a documentary film.

The closest "funeral" on Monday will be in Orlando; Sims himself will be in Sarasota, in his studio, "organizing and managing the technology."

The project's mission is "being able to bring closure to the Confederate flag," he said, "to invite creation of new symbols and to move forward. The Confederate flag is too damaged. It speaks to a troubled past. I want to confront it directly to reach psychological and spiritual closure."

An activist in Louisiana who calls himself A Scribe Called Quess is spearheading Monday's event in New Orleans, which will begin with a burial ceremony at a monument to Robert E. Lee, followed by a march to a nearby community center and a town hall meeting to discuss issues related to the Confederate flag and white supremacists.

"Myself and a couple of other poets will be sharing poetry relevant to the project," said Quess. "I'm excited by it, excited by the panelists."

Quess sees the flag funerals project as especially timely given the recent incidents involving black men being shot by police.

"The symbolism is representative of so much. The Confederate flag is the equivalent to a swastika for black people. It's something we have to receive and experience every day. Because these symbols continue to stand, it would only follow logic that black lives don't matter."

In Atlanta, Terone Allen expects between 20 and 50 people to participate in a mock funeral service, poetry reading, music performance and art exhibit, followed by a community discussion about the flag and what it means.

"The reason I really wanted to get involved with it was to explore the whole reason (the flag) has been hanging around, what it represents as the foundation of the Confederacy," he said. "One of the biggest influences of that is that in 1861, the vice president of the Confederacy said that the foundation of the Confederacy was that Negroes were subordinate to the white people."

INTERESTED?
13 FLAG FUNERALS by John Sims Projects will be live-streamed on the Internet at 1 p.m. May 25 at 13flagfunerals.com.

 

INTERESTED?
13 FLAG FUNERALS by John Sims Projects will be live-streamed on the Internet at 1 p.m. May 25 at 13flagfunerals.com.
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Susan Rife

Susan Rife is the arts and books editor for the Herald-Tribune Media Group. She holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4930. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.
Last modified: May 22, 2015
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