The Confederate Flag sways in the wind while hanging from a noose during the performance of artist John Sims’ “Confederate Flag: a Public Hanging.” (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)
PHOTOS: John Sims’ ‘Confederate Flag: a Public Hanging’
On Thursday, October 26, artist John Sims performed his piece Confederate Flag: a Public Hanging in the Scripps Amphitheater. The performance featured the hanging of a Confederate flag on 13-foot gallows, symbolic of judgment and reckoning against the Confederate history of white supremacy, contemporary terrorism, and Jim Crow laws.
The artist states: “As Confederate flags and monuments come down all across the country, it is the time more than ever to bring the Confederacy, it’s history, symbols and icons to justice.”
After the performance, the work was taken to be displayed as The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag, a part of the Kennedy Museum of Art’s exhibition Expression and Repression, which will be on display through December 22, 2017.
Take a look at these photos of the performance, taken by WOUB’s Nickolas Oatley.
ShaVaughn Peterson walks off stage after singing the National Anthem. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)A djembe performer awaits playing in front of people gathered at E.W. Scripps Amphitheatre. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)Ohio University students, professors, and Athens community members gather around Scripps Amphitheatre at high noon on Thursday, October 26 for the hanging of the Confederate Flag at the gallows. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)John Sims helps hang up the Confederate Flag from the 13-foot gallows. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)The Confederate Flag is hung from a noose at the top of a 13-foot gallows. (WOUB/Nickolas Oatley)Music fills the amphitheater while the Confederate Flag is hung. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)Jazzmine Zabriel, Philosophy and Communications Major, read poetry along with Prince Shakur. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)Prince Shakur, Joana Watson, and Jazzmine Zabriel embrace each other after the ceremony. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)John Sims thanks Ohio University students for holding this event here on campus. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)Jé Exodus Hooper gets everyone on their feet and dancing. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)Jazzmine Zabriel, Prince Shakur and others present at the public hanging dance around the amphitheater. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)Following the event, complimentary AfroRebel cake and hot cider are served until 4 p.m. at E.W. Scrips Amphitheatre. (Nickolas Oatley/WOUB)
