Flag Story Quilt, Marquetta Johnson; Faith Ringgold

Exhibition Label:
"Big Stuff: Contemporary Art from the Collection," Jun-1998
In 1972 Ringgold abandoned canvas as a medium and turned to cloth, drawing on her own heritage in quilt making. She traced her working in quilts to her own great great grandmother, Betsy Bingham, and her great grandmother, Susie Shannon, both slaves whose duties included making quilts for plantation owners. Ringgold invents narratives based on the community of Harlem, where she grew up. In this case the story is of a quadriplegic Vietnam veteran wrongly accused of the rape and murder of a white woman. The work plays on the political and textile characteristics of the flag and the tensions between the traditional quilt medium and contemporary African-American issues.