The Installation FLAGS, reflects and memorializes my past Domestic Violence (DV) relationship. The works depict scenes, recreated from my experience, that are buried in the ground to represent ending the relationship while the foundation of grass suggests the anticipation of growth. The flag colors symbolize the complexities of relationships; the good, bad and what lingers. Eventually the grass will grow, covering the images and leaving the flags to act as reminders of the ways I do and do not want to be treated and loved in the future. Above the images hangs my “checkered flag” , a tattered t-shirt with a portrait of my great-grandparents cutting their wedding cake. This is interpreted as my finish line, a relationship I aspire to inhabit in my future as the stories of the sanctity of their marriage have been relayed to me since I was a little girl. My ultimate hope is for this project to act as a platform and sanctuary for young black girls/women to feel seen, as our navigation of womanhood is drastically different from women within different racial groups. Forcing our stories to go both unheard and untold even within our own community.

Flag Symbolisms:  Red/Dislike, Green/Desire, Blue/Tranquility, Yellow/Caution, Black/Culture, Gray/Indecisiveness