Noose Nap Flag
plywod, sisal twine, hemp twine, staples, cellotape, vinyl text, compost, sisal rope, hemp rope, black wall
8' x 8'
2020
2020
still images of Noose Nap Flag installation at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, November 2020.
photos by Reese Bland
Noose Nap Flag is made to accompany and be in direct conversation with Where Do Monuments Go To Die?.
The video installation Where Do Monuments Go To Die? teachers the viewer to untie a noose. The sculptural installation Noose Nap Flag explicitly invites viewers to put that knowledge into practice and by doing so become co-authors of the installation.
Noose Nap Flag is made of over 7200 miniature nooses, one for every carceral facility-- each prison, jail, detention center, immigration detention center, psych jail, youth detention center, etc--in the United States. In dismantling this flag, noose by noose, viewers are offered an embodied experience of what it eels like to learn new responses to generational trauma, to face fears, find a new way, prepare ground to build a new or tell a new story.
They are able to bear witness to how collective possibilities and power can manifest themselves through the simple ritual of intentionally repeating many small acts. This is how systems are maintained and this is how they will be destroyed. This piece is a training ground.
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