A Country In Distress
- Donald L. Daniel III, Web Editor
- Dec 11, 2016
- 2 min read
CINCINNATI, OH - Artist Harry Sanchez Jr., created waves last week with this installation he calls "The Lynching of November 8, 2016".
The 36-year-old, El Paso, Texas native is a second year, fine arts graduate student at University of Cincinnati.
"The focus of my degree is fine arts," Sanchez said. "But, in particular, in the past year, it has been primarily about political and social issues, including privacy in the digital age and whistleblowing."
The provocative art installation includes one American flag suspended by a hangman's noose, coupled with another American flag hung Union side down in the recognized symbol of dire distress.
"My display, to me, means that everything we stand for as a country [is] being attacked and all the sacrifices that have been made are being attacked and sacrificed," he said. "We as a country are under distress and I feel that there needs to be some healing on many fronts in order for us to move forward as UNITED States."
Sanchez wants people to know that his choices for this particular display comes from a place of love and not hate, and that knowing full well what the flag means to some people, he felt that his message was more important than the inevitable vitriol from those who take offense at his work.
"I love this country just as much as the people who I am getting hate and threats from," he said. "Both of my parents are military, my uncle served in Vietnam and my grandfather fought the Nazis in WWII, so I do, absolutely, understand the sacrifices that they have made for this country.
"The value of the flag is not lost to me as I understand that the values of the flag are what really matter."
The hateful rhetoric has, indeed, poured in and Sanchez says that it just further proves the point he was attempting to illustrate in the first place.
"I have discussed that there [are reasons] why people want to come here from other countries, fear of living under cartels, gangs and dirty police," he said. "These humble people who have almost nothing are willing to sacrifice the lives of their children in order to better it.
"They send them here under risk of kidnapping, death, rape and the possibility of ending up in the sex trade. They do this because of what the flag stands for. The freedoms that we are afforded in this country are the exact reason why this country is already great."
Artists exist to describe the world that they see from their unique perspective. Their responsibility is to provide meaning, inspire change, provoke thought. Love it or hate it, Sanchez has you thinking about what it means to be American. He has done and will continue to do his job. Will you?
If you'd like to see more of Sanchez' work, you can check out his website here.
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