American flag (from U.S. military burial) with wool blankets, satin, and thread
Dimensions:
130 × 84 in. (330.2 × 213.4 cm)
Type:
Decorative Arts-Fiber
Crafts
Date:
2004
Gallery Label:
Artist Marie Watt has asked, "What happens when American art includes Indigenous art in [the] narrative? How does that shift the stories we tell about what it means to be American?"
In Edson's Flag, Watt, a member of the Seneca Nation, pays tribute to Indigenous warriors and war veterans, including her great-uncle Edson. She makes a unified piece from pieces that might not seem to fit easily together--a section of patchwork quilt, wool blankets evoking trade-goods (one army-green, one red), and an American flag. Invoking icons of America that are overtly connected to mainstream white culture, she summons an alternate set of associations from these same forms--specifically those related to intergenerational, Indigenous memory.
