Projects

[The American Context-#5] Flag

9 feet by 17 feet
[108" by 204"]

Part of The American Context series.

This is a flag made from a flag. the original flag was four times the area of this flag. 20 feet by 30 feet. I found it at the Goodwill. ready to be thrown away. I used the good pieces of material from it and gave it a new life as a flag but different.

The flag you see is an adaptation of its former self. This particular flag flew somewhere over the heads of men and women serving in one branch of the government or military in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

This quilt took the discarded used and ripped flag and reformed the pieces into a new life and a new flag.

This is a piece of my series “The American Context” in which I combine traditional quilting techniques with American iconography. I was intending to construct a flag from used clothes and textiles when I came across the original flag. Which is a surprise as those particular flags are discarded in very specific ways. So to find it ripped and donated was unusual. I took the flag down into its material and using one of the most basic quilting techniques sewed it and quilted it into a new life. I made log cabin blocks and turned them 45degrees so they would make stripes.

This flag creates a great discourse on use and refuse.

Blogged: blog.lukehaynes.com/archives/569