This is what it looks like to fry an American flag
These colors don’t run, but brother, have you tried them deep fried?
If you want to own an American flag flown over the U.S. Capitol, you can make a request for one through your U.S. House or Senate member’s office, and what you do with it is up to you.
Since 2020, artist Kiyan Williams has been battering, seasoning, and frying nylon flags flown over the Capitol for their work “How Do You Properly Fry an American Flag,” now on display for their first solo exhibition, Un/earthing, at Lyles & King in New York City through June 25.
The flags were seasoned with paprika, salt, and pepper, and fried in safflower oil. Over Memorial Day weekend, Williams invited visitors to bring their own regional-specific seasonings to make a flag with, and called it a flag fry.
My initial interpretation of the work was as a tongue-in-cheek statement on kitschy American patriotism. These colors don’t run, but brother, have you tried them deep fried? It’s even more ‘Murica.
Williams’ message behind the flags, however, is much more pointed; to them, it’s about murder justified in the name of a flag.
“Murdering people in the United States, murdering so many people outside the United States is all justified for the American flag, for money, for resources, for stolen resources at that,” says a voiceover in a video showing the flags getting fried. “For me that’s what it means. Murder.”
“How Do You Properly Fry an American Flag” isn’t the only work at Williams’ exhibition. The flags are displayed alongside vaguely human-like sculptures made from earth and steel meant by Williams as an exploration between Blackness and land, and inspired by Lake Drummond, Virginia, a swamp that was home to communities of formerly enslaved people beginning was early as the 1600s, per Lyles & King.
Fun fact: every year, more than 100,000 requests for flags flown at the U.S. Capitol are filled, and if you’re wondering how they do it, there are special flag poles that fly smaller flags daily year-round, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, according to the Architect of the Capitol.
See more >> [The new USPS flag stamp is based on a car dealership flag]
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