FLAG II

In 2016 I created FLAG as a site-specific response to HB2 — North Carolina’s notorious, wantonly cruel “bathroom bill” (which actually went beyond restricting public restroom access to undercut antidiscrimination laws and limit local control over the minimum wage).

The installation occupied a vacant storefront on Martin Street in downtown Raleigh, situated just a few blocks south of the State Capitol and Legislative Buildings where the bill was passed. Playful at first glance, the project was very intentional about implicating every passerby in an unfolding conversation about community, belonging, and civil rights.

The idea of FLAG was to insist on a participatory relationship to local politics. But, as we all know, the local is national. The quick passage of HB2 in a special session by an emboldened and unaccountable legislature was made possible by the nationwide efforts of Republicans and dark money to take over statehouses in the redistricting year of 2010, cementing political power even as they declined in popular support. As an election-year gambit, it also reflected the time-tested right-wing tactic of manufacturing outrage over any expansion of minority rights.

The LGBTQ+ community has been a perennial target, and in the years since 2016 the rhetoric and policy battles have only gotten more brutal. As we look to local and national elections in the fall of 2022, we see politicians and candidates stoking fears about “grooming,” media entities devoted to harassing allies and parents of trans youth, supreme court justices opining about the end of same-sex marriage. When CAM asked me to consider reviving FLAG, it felt like the right time.

The conversation around the flag, representation, and inclusion has has evolved in significant ways since 2016. New iterations representing the diversity of the broader LGBTQ+ community are taking hold. Most notably, Daniel Quasar’s Progress flag includes black and brown stripes and the colors of the trans pride flag in a chevron form alongside the six-color rainbow.

Flags and symbols change. The six-color pride flag is itself an evolution and refinement of an earlier design. This project is meant to reflect that these flags are more than color and shape. They are alive, they are action and intentionality. They are in conversation with us as we live and love, work, and fight alongside each other for the rights and lives we deserve.

The eight-color rainbow of FLAG II conjures the pride flag designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker with other San Francisco artists including tie-dyer Lynn Segerblom and seamster James McNamara. This is meant as a starting point. By engaging and interacting with the symbol and each other in this space, my hope is that we can come closer to owning our relationship to it, to what it represents, to each other.

Lincoln Hancock, Raleigh, NC, Fall 2022