I Pledge Allegiance

https://mistythomastrout.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/img_2547.mov

process video as memoriam // file is too large for this website so clarity is compromised. more images and videos will be uploaded soon.

This poster as an American flag was designed to honor all of the Black and Brown humans who have lost their lives at the hands of police from 1968–2021. Additionally, there is a video which accompanies the flag and reveals the process of designing and typesetting each name and details surrounding each death. This design action is one of intense labor that is tedious and repetitive, yet, the emotional process becomes an act to memorialize and honor these lives. The weaving of fabric is a metaphor to how America was constructed upon racism. May we all, pledge allegiance to ending racism.

This poster is 72.3 x 38.5 inches and designed to the U.S. Flag proportion of 1:1.9. Printed on Cotton Twill to reflect one of the original materials [cotton] used to make the first American flag. Choosing to print on fabric symbolizes the weaving of policies and procedures that constructed the country of America and inevitably weaved systemic racism. It is a flag that calls to action the continued fight for social justice and human rights.

Typeset in Redaction by Titus Kaphar and Reginald Dwayne Betts. This font that was based upon the Redaction project which seeks to highlight the abuses in America’s criminal justice system.

SOURCES:

1 Renée Ater, “In Memorium: I Can’t Breathe“, May 29, 2020, On Monuments blog, http://www.reneeater.com/on-monuments-blog/2020/5/29/in-memoriam-i-cant-breathe

2 http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/black-people-killed-by-police-in-the-u-s-in-2020/