“Reparation: Where Our Greatness Lies”, 2019 - 2022, 57 x 112”, cotton U.S. flag, thread. All the machine-embroidered stars were ripped out, and replaced with hand-embroidered stars representing the melanin scale skin tones of actual U.S. citizens.
Backstory
The American Diversity Flag© was created by longtime social activist artist Kate Kretz. For the last decade, Kretz has focused on challenging political work that reveals uncomfortable truths. Since the 2016 election, through her controversial MAGA Hat Collection, her work aims to fight the white supremacy and authoritarianism incited by Donald Trump, and carried out by his followers. Kretz rips the hats apart, transforming the pieces into corrective physical manifestations of their racist truth. While in the midst of this series, Kretz had the idea to create a positive new work to embody what TRULY makes America great: our diversity. In August of 2019, she ordered a large American flag, and began ripping out all the machine-embroidered white stars, to replace them with hand embroidered versions representing the melanin scale, all the ACTUAL skin tones of United States citizens. She published a sketch for the ongoing work on Instagram in February of 2020, and subsequently filed a U.S. copyright for her concept.
Kretz has been documenting the laborious process of this 550-hour project on Instagram. She was poetically ripping out stars through both Trump impeachment hearings. On August 11, 2020, she also sat facing the White House, separated from Donald Trump’s then-residence by three fences, to tear apart one MAGA hat and rip out one star to protest Trump’s racist rhetoric and policies.
The title for Kretz’s original fiber flag work is “Reparation: Where Our Greatness Lies.” She considers the action of aggressively ripping the commercially embroidered white stars and tediously pulling out each tenacious thread to be an important part of the piece, a metaphor for the symbolic destruction and difficult struggle towards the complete eradication of white dominance. She then painstakingly replaces the stars, stitch by stitch, with ones that represent the melanin scale, the actual skin tones of United States citizens. This country was built on land stolen from indigenous people. Our economy, as well as a great deal of generational wealth, was built on the backs of slaves brought here against their will. The Americans who have fought and died for this flag were people with various skin tones, and they all deserve to be represented.
The removal of each star takes about an hour, and the hand re-embroidery, another 8-9 hours. She wanted to manifest this change through extended physical labor, an apt metaphor for the long process of dismantling white supremacy. The actual, physical piece functions as a work of art and evidence of her conceptual process. When completed, it will be exhibited in various venues, beginning with her solo exhibition, “Evidential Truths”, at the Peeler Art Center (DePauw University) from March through mid-May of 2022. The plan was that, when completed, images of this transformed flag would later be sold as symbols of the lengthy process.
On June 17th, 2021, singer Macy Gray wrote an op-ed in Marketwatch, calling for a new U.S. flag, one that also had stars in the colors of the melanin scale. In an interview with The Daily Mail, she claimed that she did not design it herself, she worked with a “prominent male artist who wished to remain anonymous,” later adding that he was a “government artist.” After a legal consultation, Kretz realized she could not afford the tens of thousands of dollars to litigate against a millionaire. Kretz wrote a lengthy Medium article to establish her truth in the face of a massive viral PR campaign to promote Gray’s new album through her controversial flag article. Kate also sought to educate other artists about the limitations of copyright. She moved on to create this website in order to gain a foothold on the sale of her own idea, albeit a bit more makeshift and earlier than she had planned. (As the website needed to be established in haste, the clothing items are fulfilled by Amazon, and the smaller items are sold through a link to Kretz’s established website.)
Activist Sojourner Truth famously said, “I sell the shadow to sustain the substance.” While Kretz never compromises her art to make it saleable or easier to digest, she often makes affordable posters or shirts of the more popular work to allow those who like the images to own an affordable copy, and to create trickles of income to supplement her teaching. Kretz has devoted a great deal of her life to calling out #bullyculture, pointing to the various injustices perpetrated by the powerful in so many areas of our lives. She is also a staunch advocate for the empowerment of independent artists, through her university teaching, articles, and a soon-to-be-published book, helping artists to find their voice. Follow the painstaking creation and the national tour of “Reparation: Where Our Greatness Lies” on Instagram, and consider supporting this independent artist’s vision of a flag that represents ALL of us, the American Diversity Flag.
Kretz can be reached at kkretz4art@aol.com.
Exhibitions including The American Diversity Flag
Spring 2022
Debut - Peeler Art Center, DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana
Stay tuned for additional venues……
Merch
3 x 5” American Diversity Flag, with pole pocket or grommets
2 x 3’ American Diversity Flag, with pole pocket or grommets
