Old Glory Display Fails to Fly for Some

PHOENIX —  In publicizing its exhibit “Old Glory: The American Flag in Contemporary Art,” the Phoenix Art Museum trumpeted 80 works by artists celebrating the freedom of expression enjoyed under the U.S. Constitution.

What most people did not know until the display debuted was that it features an 8-foot-tall wooden “jail” housing a U.S. flag in a toilet, a flag placed on the floor for visitors to stand on and a flag made out of “Caucasian” human skin and hair.

Never mind that sculptor Andrew Krasnow insists that he obtained the skin through unspecified “legal channels,” or that visitors are encouraged to register their outrage or delight over that work and others in books destined for the museum’s archives.

The show has rattled congressional leaders in Washington, where Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) has launched an inquiry into whether federal funds were used to promote or pay for the collection scheduled to run through June 16. Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has accused the museum of “hiding behind the lofty language of free speech in order to profit from debasing America.”

Locally, the exhibit has turned Phoenix into a cultural war zone in which definitions of art and politics are up for grabs, museum officials are under fire and antipathies fester among City Council members.

Labeling the paintings, lithographs and sculptures a collective desecration of the nation’s symbol, veterans have staged protest rallies on the museum steps--and even removed flags from the exhibit to fold them properly.

Some sponsors of the museum--including Dial Corp., the soap company, and the development firm the Del Webb Corp.--have disavowed any connection with the show and demanded the removal of plaques at the entrance stating that their funding provides free admission while the museum undergoes renovations. Pepsico Inc. has asked that its name be stricken from exhibition brochures.

The Salt River Project, the largest utility in the Phoenix metropolitan area, has decided not to give the museum $29,000 in grants in the coming year.

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There is more to come. While Mayor Skip Rimsza says Phoenix has no legal authority to influence museum activities, Vice Mayor Frances Barwood is trying to find legal grounds to sever the city’s 60-year contract to maintain the private, nonprofit facility, one of the largest museums in the Southwest.

“It’s stretching freedom of expression pretty far when a flag made out of human skin hides behind the 1st Amendment. Where do we draw the line?” Barwood said. “Right now, it is a city-owned building on city-owned land, and we pay $400,000 a year to maintain it. They pay us a dollar a year and thumb their noses at taxpayers and veterans.

“All they’ve done is stir up hurt and anger,” she added. “Maybe it’s time for the city to get out of the museum business altogether.”

Not all concerned citizens feel that way. A coalition of educators, clergy and business owners recently paid for an advertisement in a local newspaper, urging residents to rally behind the museum, the exhibit and the 1st Amendment.

Despite the turmoil, museum director James Ballinger has no intention of canceling the exhibit on the last leg of its tour. If anything, the show “has been and is a success,” he said. And protest, he maintains, “is very much in the spirit of what this exhibit is all about.”

As work crews hammered and troweled in a cavernous new exhibit hall, Ballinger continued his defense of the exhibit: “Although some people are upset with the museum, many, many more are supportive of the museum and its mission, which is to educate the community.”

Since the exhibit opened on March 16, he said, “attendance is about 1,000 visitors a week above average, membership has increased and donation box offerings are up 40%.”

But he conceded that the exhibit has created more problems than anticipated. A museum advisory group of local civic leaders--including a veteran--reviewed the works before they went on display. And there were no political troubles at the traveling exhibit’s two previous venues, Cleveland and Colorado Springs, Colo.

As for concerns about federal funds being used to pay for the show, Ballinger said, “All Sen. Helms has to do is call my office and ask. There is no public money being used in this exhibition. Period.”

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Nonetheless, critics blame Ballinger for betraying veterans and others in this conservative state who view the flag as the sacred banner that enables the American institution of freedom of expression to thrive.

Depictions are one thing, they say, but some of these works desecrate the real thing.

“Draw a picture of the flag on the floor, I’ll step on it myself. Put a picture of the flag in the toilet, I’ll flush the damn thing--that isn’t the flag,” said Robert Reinhardt, spokesman for the American Legion headquarters here.

“If the museum wanted to anger people, they’ve accomplished their goal,” he said. “I just wonder why they want to hurt us so badly.”

Museum curator David Rubin, who organized the exhibit, said that was never his intent. The collection, he said, aims to document a significant trend: Amid recent disputes over flag burning and National Endowment for the Arts funding, the flag has resurfaced as a frequently used material by artists in this country and around the world.

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The trouble is that the exhibit arrived in Phoenix a few months after the U.S. Senate voted down--under an intense national spotlight--a proposed constitutional amendment that would have protected the flag from physical desecration. Beyond that, Phoenix residents are not used to seeing controversial artworks in a museum that has traditionally displayed less inflammatory offerings.

“Ultimately, we’ve brought art with something to say together with people who are looking, listening and reflecting,” Rubin said. “After all, that’s what significant art has always been about.”

What can rub critics raw, however, is when Rubin describes the artist who stitched a flag out of leathery strips of taupe-colored human skin as “very innovative. His use of material is progressive. He’s breaking new ground.”

Some visitors find it a repulsive reminder of the lampshades Hitler’s Nazis fashioned out of the skin of Jews during World War II. For others, that flag and others on display bring back painful memories.

Standing beside the soiled flag placed on the museum floor, 43-year-old veteran Fred Quihuis said, “The first thing that came to my mind when I looked at the thing was my cousin in a casket. He was killed in Vietnam. He stepped on a land mine.

“I whispered to myself, ‘Hey, I’m real sorry about this, Cuz,’ ” Quihuis said. “Then I wrote in the comment book, ‘It stinks.’ ”

The exhibit has filled the museum with the sound of visitors buzzing over and debating what they are looking at.

“I don’t see any hair. Where’s the hair? Oh, there’s some!” muttered an elderly woman peering into the glass box containing the flag of skin. “Disgusting.”

Sam Stippick, a 50-year-old former Army officer whose front yard is festooned with U.S. flags, figured the works of art were essentially harmless in the formal setting of the museum.

Nonetheless, he said, “I have a hard time with that flag on the floor.

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“A lot of people have spilled blood over it,” he said. “On the other hand, you walk on the flags of some other countries and you get shot. That says a lot about America.”

Realtor Suzanne Miles and artist Andrew Perlmutter got an eyeful of the flags and decided to pay $40 each to become active members of the museum. “We joined to show our support and appreciation for the museum not backing down,” Miles said.

But with Memorial Day looming, there is a whiff of compromise in the air at museum headquarters.

“We are considering some sort of artistic presentation for Memorial Day that will be open to all,” Ballinger said.

He said the proposed event is still in the planning stages. But other museum officials said it may feature an orchestra playing patriotic music.

“It would follow the principle of offering a balanced program,” said museum spokeswoman Gail Griffen. “The question is this: Will it be misconstrued by the very people we are reaching out to?”

Whatever form it takes, American Legion spokesman Reinhardt will not be there.

“It would be hard to attend,” he said, “when the museum has a flag in the toilet.”