Using United States flags (cut into thin strips) as his material and crochet as his
technique, Jerry Bleem brings together the classic icon of the nation and a
constructive hand process associated with domesticity. Inspired by the way
the war in Iraq has been reported [as either disimpassioned stories of national
policy or heart-wrenching accounts of individual soldiers' disrupted lives and
deaths], this work documents the time Bleem has spent thinking of the relationship
between these two different versions of war. Rather than taking an ideological
stance, he invites a consideration of how the public life of the nation
impacts the individual lives of her citizens. Related drawings and collages join
the crocheted works and mimic their process of piling up a simple gesture as
physical evidence of his musings.