5. Monumental Cloth, sutured

5. Monumental Cloth, sutured

Date: 2017

Dimensions: 18in x 3ft

Medium: Tea stained, handwoven, linen replica of the Confederate Flag of Truce and silk suture thread

Description: In April 1865, a dishtowel was repurposed as the Confederate Flag of Truce at Appomattox, Virginia. The humble cloth ended the Civil War. It was divided in half and one half divided further. The half at the Smithsonian American History Museum compelled me to make it whole, to make it a monument of peace, an antidote to the recurring symbol of the Confederate Battle flag. This divided country is in desperate need of healing its deeply festered wound. That most people do not recognize the cloth that ended the Civil War, is evidence the war never truly ended. I offer this replica truce flag as a salve to the body of our nation.