Hi Crowd!
Today the USA turns 250 years old. Our relationship has always been a bit complicated. I recognize that the divide between what the United States of America promised to be and what it’s become is far wider than many want to admit. Honestly it has been since the beginning. But I also hold hope that it can be better. The goal of a “more perfect union” remains something of a carrot on a stick, in sight but just out of reach. But a goal worth trying to find a way to achieve. That won’t happen with blind loyalty or forced nationalism but through honest reflection and criticism and improvement. I’m not saying anything new here, but 250 years in it still needs to be repeated.
“I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
-James Baldwin
I could write a hundred different newsletters today, my Quicky digest (which pulls from all the newsletters I subscribe to) is filled with people doing just that and each of those is a path worth spending time with. Lots of rabbit holes there. I don’t have a clear thing I want to say today because, again, it’s complicated. But I thought what I could do it point to some art people have made around the day or for it, not because any of them are the end all be all, but because this is complicated and artists picking at complicated topics in sometimes uncomfortable ways is something I love, and maybe you’ll enjoy it too.
Shepard Fairey didn’t pull any punches this morning, so lets start with his post on Instagram.
The other slides on that post are worth reading, the comments of course are not. It’s wild how many people didn’t immediately understand the reference being made and why that’s important.
Speaking of Instagram, Kei Ito posted about this installation/performance piece he’s doing today at the Bemis Center in Nebraska, using the sunlight of the day to expose a Lumen print through a flag, resulting image yet to be known. I’ll also take this moment to say how fucking frustrating it is that Instagram throws so many icons and nav buttons on images now, getting a clean one off there is near impossible and I really wish artists could cross post work to other places easily and automatically.
Gary Taxali continues his biting commentary on the current situation. His recent flag work is collected in a new book appropriately titled ‘Flagged.”
Another artist who has played with the flag a lot is Saber. I’ve always loved this b/w version he did in 2010 and of course his ongoing “shattered” series is worth digging into.
Today he chimes in with his ‘Declaration’ print from a few years ago, still painfully relevant. He’s added a few of these original prints to his shop of you want to grab one.
Banks Violette (featured image up is his too) is another artist who has done provocative work using the US flag as inspiration some of which he reposted today (again on Instagram so trying to screenshot any of it was useless). Banks is one of those artists who I just really really really wish had his own website.
Going the other direction with a pure digital work, ROBNESS shines a light on the AMERICAN DRAMA. Zooming in on this one is worth it.
And Grant Yun with his Lady Liberty of course.
And Beeple somehow perfectly sums the whole experience up with his Everydays for today, FAFOx250
Playing with both digital and physical, hand crafted and AI, and looping back to music – earlier this week I was gobsmacked by an unexpected delivery of this vinyl record with me on the cover!
Turns out it was a surprise gift from my friend Reid Hoffman who has been exploring all those parts, and using AI to make 1 of 1 personalized gifts for people and also reimagining some important American texts in song. But also going back to the early promises, and the contrast of what has been delivered.
And related, as has become his tradition, Peter Gilmore looks at creeping theocracy and reiterates how unamerican that is, and leaves us with some musical selections of his own.
As for me I’ll leave you with one of mine titled “Blown” from 2018 and part of my “Unfinished Projects” series which is fitting. The USA itself is an unfinished project, 250 years in… what hand will we all play in where it goes from here?
I raise a BBQ slathered veggie dog and a root beer to you all.
From somewhere in Canada,
-s