In O Say..., 2022, Hank Willis Thomas continues his incisive deconstruction of the American flag, repurposing its familiar iconography to interrogate national ideals and their dissonance with lived realities. Employing mixed media, including actual US flags, Thomas subverts the flag’s symbolic unity, unearthing themes of systemic inequality and historical erasure.

O Say... reimagines the flag’s stripes and stars, distorting its formal elements to evoke confinement, marginalisation, and the racial inequalities underpinning the American experience. The transformation of this national emblem into a complex visual metaphor challenges the viewer to reconsider its traditional meanings.

Through its material manipulation, O Say... transcends the object of the flag itself, reflecting on the fraught relationship between national identity and individual liberty. By turning a ubiquitous symbol into a site of interrogation, Thomas powerfully critiques the gaps between the nation’s aspirational ideals and the realities faced by its people.