Artist "Dread Scott" Tyler and Free SpeechIn 1989, while on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, African American artist "Dread Scott" Tyler's work What is the Proper Way to Display an American Flag? became, as he puts it, "the center of national controversy over its use of the American flag. President Bush Sr. declared What is the Proper Way… 'disgraceful' and the entire US Congress denounced this work as they passed legislation to 'protect the flag.' Senator Dole specifically noted that the law would apply to 'the so-called ‘artist’ who has invited the trampling on the flag.' As part of the popular effort to oppose moves to make patriotism compulsory, I, along with three others, burned flags on the steps of the US Capitol. This resulted in a Supreme Court case and landmark decision.
(My) installation is comprised of: a photomontage (the montage consists of pictures of South Korean students burning US flags holding signs saying 'Yankee go home son of bitch' and flag draped coffins in a troop transport; text printed on the photomontage reads "What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?"), books (originally with blank pages) on a shelf, ink pens, a 3'x5' American flag on the ground and an active audience. The audience was encouraged to write responses to the question "What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?" As they did so, they had... to stand on the flag as they wrote their response." Comments included:
There are many questions you have raised. For that I thank you. It does hurt me to see the flag on the ground being stepped on. Yet now after days have passed, I have realized tat this is the ultimate form of patriotism. Our country is so strong in believing what it stands for that we would allow you to do this. You have made me really think about my own
patriotism, which has grown stronger.
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I am a German girl. If we Germans would admire our flag as you all do, we would be called Nazis again...I think you do have too much trouble about this flag.
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You're fucked--minorities get everything!
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In Russia you would be shot and your family would have to pay for the bullets. But once again what do you expect from a nigger named "Dread Scott"?
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Hi, the flag is now folded on the shelf. I have the right to unfold it, but the veterans are here and I'm afraid to. Is it right (is it American) for me to feel afraid to exercise my rights?
Read other comments here.
"Dread Scott Tyler's work was part of a minority student exhibition at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago entitled 'A / Part of The Whole.' After requests by school administration for Tyler to withdraw the piece, What Is The Proper Way To Display A U.S. Flag? was reluctantly included in the juried show. Within a week of the exhibition's opening on February 17, 1989 protests and threats arose. The press, alerted to the fact of a flag on the floor that viewers were stepping on, came in with minicams. An attack on the institute was orchestrated by Republican senator Walter Dudycz, along with representatives from veterans' organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and Viet-Now, who filed a suit in Cook County Circuit Court to close down the show. On March 2, Tony Jones, president of the School of The Art Institute, stood in court before Judge Kenneth Gillis as he readily dismissed the suit" ruling that " 'the institute had not violated either state or federal laws concerning the flag. This exhibit is as much an invitation to think about the flag as it is an invitation to step on it,' Judge Gillis said reminding the court works of art are protected under the First Amendment. This ruling had little affect on the protesters outside of the school. Amidst numerous bomb threats and physical threats to students,faculty, staff and visitors to the school, Security was fortified with plain clothes police, and visitors to the gallery were restricted to eight people when it was not necessary to clothes the gallery due to threats. The school stood by the artwork for the duration of the show... Chicago Police Department informed the school that they were not criminally liable for the piece, but any viewer who walks on the flag may be charged with a felony. A teacher, visiting Chicago, walked on the flag in order to write in the book was arrested when police were alerted by a veteran.
Tyler was not allowed to submit "What Is The Proper Way To Display A U.S. Flag?" for his thesis project in the schools graduation show. The School of The Art Institute of Chicago's government funding was cut from $70,000 to $1 and many benefactors pulled donations."
Dread named himself after the slave Dred Scott and the infamous Supreme court ruling of 1857 limiting the power of Congress to exclude slavery from newly created states.
One of Dread Scott's recent works described: "A little while ago I visited Dread in New York City. He had a new piece--Jasper the Ghost --inspired by the brutal 1998 lynch murder of of James Byrd Jr., who was dragged to his death behind a truck by white supremacists in Jasper, Texas. I looked down 50 feet of blacktop, and at the far end--menacing--was the bumper off a pick-up truck. Hundreds of feet of chains swung from telephone poles along the side of the road. The chains and poles formed a tunnel over the roadway. My eyes fixed on the bumper and I was pulled into the piece. Standing on the blacktop, all the outside noise disappeared. I could almost hear the racist taunts and billy-bob laughs coming from the truck. I could feel the terror in Byrd's heart."
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