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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