Tasha Dougé

In 2016, Haitian artist Tasha Dougé created a five-foot by three-foot flag made entirely from synthetic braiding hair, cotton, and chicken wire. Dougé’s flag is an homage to enslaved Africans brought to America to toil here. The stars are cotton, an industry that fueled the expansion of the United States as well as centuries of persecution. Brown stripes represent the spectrum of melanin that constitutes Black people’s skin tones; gray stripes, the years of ongoing oppression. The black canton speaks to Black experiences specific to the U.S. Lovingly nicknamed Justice, Dougé’s flag appears in this photo series, in which she staged interventions around Philadelphia for one day. Lying on train tracks, sitting on a church pew, burdened by metaphorical weight—is Justice pinning Dougé down, or is she lifting Justice up?—the artist confronts racial inequality and identity.