Déise Rag Flag

Déise Rag Flag

Textiles role in queer art and activism

Textiles have long been associated with queerness. I was inspired by the aids memorial quilt and protest banners to create a community artwork for Pride of the Déise 2024. To limit the environmental impact of this project I used post consumer textiles to create the flag. Sourcing unsellable donations from my local charity shops ( NCBI on O'Connell street, and Sue Ryder Ballybricken). This project was focused on diverting textile waste from landfill and bringing peoples art together. The final flag was displayed on our main stage on O'Connell street and also at Butler Gallery.

Assembling the flag

Each stripe in the pride flag represents a different aspect of the community. Red represents life, Orange Healing, Yellow sunlight, green nature, blue serenity and violet represents spirit. The progress strips represent people of color, intersex people and the trans community.

After collecting the fabric and creating the strips I gave them out to different people in the community groups to decorate. Such as Chillout (a youth LGBT group), Haus of Goofy (a drag house), Ki (a queer artist), Cam (former chair of Pride of the Déise), Hannah (a queer filmmaker) and Levi (a fibre artist). The brief was simple, to create something monochromatic with the stripe that they have been given. 

Once all the strips were decorated I collected them and it was time to assemble the flag. This took 12 hours of me and my mam continuously sewing and pressing. Once the flag was assembled we lined it and added tabs so it can be easily hung. 

 

Photo credit: Cam Lyttle
Flag on Display at Butler Gallery Kilkenny

Photo credit Benji Carter

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