This month, the Lives That Speak podcast spoke to artist Sonya Clark ’85. We discuss the power of Sonya’s art, how curators put objects in conversation with one another, and one of Clark’s favorite media: textiles. Clark has added an afro to Lincoln’s pate on the $5 bill, sewn long rows of dreadlocks to a chair, and invited spectators to join her in painstakingly unraveling the Confederate battle flag until it’s just thread. The deconstruction of “monumental” cloth specifically—whether it’s flags, Black hair, currency, or literature—demonstrates the possibility and the power of undoing to, paradoxically, create something more whole.
Sonya’s upcoming exhibits
Tatter, Bristle, and Mend (solo retrospective) | March 3-May 31
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
Heavenly Bound + Monumental Cloth: the flag we should know | April 9-September 12
deCordova Museum and Sculpture park
Crafting America February 6-May31
Crystal Bridges Museum, AR
Barring Freedom through April 25, 2021
San José Museum of Art
Never Done: 100 years of Women in Politics and Beyond through June 6, 2021
Tang Teaching Museum, NY
Word on the Street through August 29, 2021
Emerson Collective, Washington DC
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