FYI, y'all.
Deo Vindice!
ADVISORY for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3 - Gettysburg, Pa.
Artist to 'Lynch' Confederate Flag at Gettysburg College
GETTYSBURG, Pa., Aug. 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- An artist will "lynch" the Confederate battle flag on a specially built 13-foot-high outdoor gallows at Gettysburg College Sept. 3.
The lynching - set for 7 p.m. near Schmucker Hall off North Washington Street - will occur on the opening night of an exhibition called "Recoloration Proclamation: The Gettysburg Redress" by artist John Sims.
This lynching, entitled "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag," will also be the subject of an exhibition closing ceremony on Sept. 26.
The exhibition in the college's Schmucker Art Gallery will also include:
- Confederate flags that Sims has rendered in alternate colors, such as the black, red and green of the African liberation movement. Two "drag flags" will be in lavender and pink with sparkles and fur.
- Sims' "ReVote" installation, which includes his re-colored "Floridian Rebel Flag" surrounded by three of the actual voting booths used in Florida's controversial 2000 presidential election.
- The artist's revised version of President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address."
- The artist's "Dixie Remix Project," an interactive experience centering on the famous song that begins, "Way down south in the land of cotton."
- A lecture on Sims, "Razing the Flag: Nationalism and Dissent in Contemporary Art," by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, assistant professor of art history and Afro-American studies at Harvard University at Schmucker Hall, at 5:15 p.m., Sept. 16.
"The 'Recoloration Proclamation' project is about visual terrorism, respect and collective self-esteem issues," Sims said.
"By co-opting the image of the Confederate flag and changing the well-known color scheme to one antithetical to the flag's historical and cultural function, Sims is able to interrogate and re-direct the symbol's power, perhaps altering the viewer's sense of place and belonging," said Dr. Molly S. Hutton, who directs Gettysburg College's Schmucker Art Gallery.
In addition to his work as an artist, Sims is coordinator of mathematics at Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla. A native of Detroit, he is completing a Ph.D. in mathematics at Wesleyan University, and holds a B.S. in mathematics from Antioch College in Ohio. He is co-curator of "MathArt/ArtMath," a nationally touring exhibition of contemporary mathematical art.
Images and more information about Sims are available at www.johnsimsprojects.com.
Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With a student body of approximately 2,500, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1832.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Kendra Branchick, Gettysburg College media relations, 717-337-6801; kbranchi@gettysburg.edu; www.gettysburg.edu/administration/public_relations/newsroom.html
John Sims, 941-330-0096; jsims@ringling.edu; www.johnsimsprojects.com
NOTE TO EDITORS: To attend a press preview of the exhibit, call the Office of Communications and Public Relations at 717-337-6801
This is big, Andy.
Big, I tell you.
Ya want sympathy for the insurrectionists? GO TO FREDERICKSBURG! Pennsylvania is YANKEE TERRITORY. It's only true to what Gettysburg IS. What, you want good press for your failed invasion from the people you invaded? Not gonna happen.
Uh, that would be the battle of Saratoga by the Revolutionary Army.
I am so damned sick and tired of this liberal south-hating bull$hit!
I am not from the south, but have been through there, and they are the best Americans that can be found. This makes me feel like flying a confederate battle flag everywhere I go.
I was watching Gettysburg (a pretty good movie, even with Sheen as Lee) on a flight back from Europe since I saw the onboard movies on the way over. A black flight attendant was shooting daggers at me the whole trip. I was going to tell her not to worry, that the Union won, but I didn't want to get arrested for harrasment when I stepped off the plane.
It doesn't say what's wrong with the art. What's wrong with the art?
I do have some young acquaintances at Gettysburg College and they are mortified by this madness.
Why can't a southern artist just respond with life size replica showing some of Sherman's Bummers being caught and hung by Confederate calvary?
Fair and balanced, i'd say.
But this stunt is revolting. As much as Gettysburg is in the North, its a battlefield where American dead fell -- brave men and boys on both sides. It's supposed to be a place of solemnity where we can remember our heritage. The sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, etc. of many of the southernors who fought in that battle -- and for the South elsewhere -- fought under the American flag in subsequent wars. We ought not to spit in the faces of those men. Let's face it -- you tended to fight on the side of the state where you were born. I'm not sure you're average Pennsylvanian private was any different than your average private from Alabama.
That being said, this appears to be a stunt permitted by Gettysburg College, not the town or park personnel. My guess is that a lot of the locals won't like this either, but neither they nor the town itself have the ability to stop this. Kooky college administrators in any town can do stupid things. I think protesting against the College is a great idea, but I don't think its fair to tar the town and park with the actions of the college.
My ancestors fought for the Union, but I say this Confederate-bashing is a bunch of bull.
Wouldn't it be grand if we could think like that today? Americans died on each side of the line in the Civil War. I respect them all.
AZ IF...
this is going to stop Gettysburg tourism? BWAHAHAHAHA!
I go down there once a year, in October, and you can hardly walk the streets with all the tourists. You have to reserve a room months in advance.
Yup, these ole boys are a-whistlin' "Dixie".
National Press Officer
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Is that a name or a sport?
yawn