Adrian Aguilera and Betelhem Makonnen untitled (a flag for John Lewis or a greenscreen placeholder for an America that is yet to be), 2020, Printed standard flag fabric, 240 in x 144 in. Photo Credit: Adrian Aguilera and Betelhem Makonnen; Bhadri Verduzco/Philbrook Museum of Art.
Today we celebrate Flag Day, an annual national holiday that commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States of America on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. Austin-based artists Adrian Aguilera and Betelhem Makonnen‘s exhibition people the we earlier this year at Prizer Arts and Letters in Austin included a flag.
Adrian Aguilera / Betelhem Makonnen untitled (a flag for John Lewis or a green screen placeholder for an America that is yet to be) 2020 fabric, flag hardware, and pole 3 ft x 5 ft. Photo credit: Prizer Arts and Letters
untitled (a flag for John Lewis or a green screen placeholder for an America that is yet to be) honors the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement, “and all past and present liberation workers who continually fight for freedom, justice, and equal rights for all Americans.” The flag is currently on view at Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma as part of the exhibition The Limitations of Now, through September 5 of this year.
Makonnen and Aguilera’s flag is available as a lapel pin which can be ordered from Pilbrook Museum here. Proceeds benefit the Black Wall Street Memorial, a project powered by the Tulsa Community Remembrance Coalition. About the pin, Makonnen writes, “I deeply want this (pin) to also serve as a refusal to participate in resettling to “normal”.
