Tallahassee art exhbit fuels Confederate flag controversy
March 21, 2007
An art exhibit at the Mary Brogan Museum of Art Science, here in Tallahassee, is stirring quite a bit of controversy.
Bob Hurst walked into a Tallahassee art museum this week and saw the symbol of his Southern heritage hanging by a noose.
The Artwork, which has led to a standoff between descendants of Confederate soldiers and the museum, is a life-size gallows with the Confederate flag dangling from a noose. Created by a black artist from Detroit and titled “The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag,” the piece has brought an old debate to Florida anew.
One of a dozen displays of Confederate flag art by political artist John Sims, it’s part of an exhibit entitled AfroProvocations at the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science that opened as part of Black History Month in February.”
The display also includes Confederate flags arranged in a cross, a Confederate flag displayed above a voting machine and a restaging of Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic that shows a grim-faced Sims, arms crossed, standing next to a noose with the flag behind him.
Isn’t it the duty of art to create controversy and spark debate? Isn’t art’s mission to outrage and enlighten it’s audience. So why would we ever stifle that?
What say you?
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Just below is the text of a comment, I hope will come to the attention of the director for the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science:
“As if this museum doesn’t have enough problems with regard to the Confederate Battle Banner.
“Some busybody claims that I should be upset about one of the send-ups of the Confederate Battle Banner. Specifically, it is practically a duplicate of the photograph I use as an icon for my blogspot website. Wood’ja (?) buh-leave!
“I actually proposed the design to be used by Republicans, intent on saving their party from becoming a regional party, completely restricted to the former Confederate states. Should that happen, the only national party will be the Democratic Party.
“If that busybody’s claim should happen to be true, we may need to talk. By the way, it’s easy enough to check. One need only click on the bold hewhoisknownassefton said text.
“Somewhere in my website, there’s information about how to get in touch.”
toodles
oh, yeah, almost forgot, here’s the hyperlink to my blogspot website:
oh, it’s here somewhere
and one more thing, you’re getting this e.mail, because I googled “John Sims” and “Confederate”, and then your website came up . . .
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