Fallen Stars by Jenny Eggleston
@Golden Belt Gallery
Opening November 11, 2023 with Live Music at 5pm & Gallery Opening 6:30pm
About the Exhibition
Open November 11 - January 4
The nostalgia our flag conjures isn’t for a past in which it stood for some democratic ideal, but rather a time when it was shrouded in an American mythology so dense we couldn’t see it for what it was—a symbol of a capitalist dream intentionally made inaccessible to all but the white privileged few. It represents to many, practitioners of colonialism, slavery, and genocide.
For liberals, Fallen Stars is an exploration of the flag as a symbol of the false narratives we’ve told ourselves for centuries, what that’s caused, and where that’s gotten us. It is also a grappling with the resulting guilt and the self-reflection required, especially among people who are not targeted by violence, to move forward in justice and equity for all.
For conservatives, Fallen Stars is an outing, a public reckoning with the fact that they are ok with, have always been ok with, what the flag has represented, who it has represented, and who it has not. It is also about the desperate attempt to hold on to these values as a nation, and the fact that the flag, as is, hasn’t gone far enough, that variations of the flag have been created to represent even more overt, often violent sentiments.
It feels at times like the American flag is overburdened with meaning, overly co-opted and appropriated, and is exhausted and vulnerable. In this way, it bears at least some resemblance to a white flag of distress.
Fallen Stars incorporates ink, oil paint, charcoal, wax, coffee, and even mud as a medium, representing our soiled past and present, our damaged self-image- (think mud on our face) -that has resulted in a long-overdue self-awareness, and our proud yet deeply problematic agricultural roots. A number of these pieces evoke the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
About Jenny Eggleston
Jenny Eggleston is a Raleigh-based artist raised in Richmond, Virginia. Born into a family of historians, she was immersed in southern, patriotic rhetoric and grew up with a deep love of southern culture, food, and art. Her work is a reckoning with this whitewashed, patriarchal upbringing. Eggleston graduated from the College of William and Mary and began graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University before moving to Seattle and then to Raleigh.
Eggleston has exhibited throughout North Carolina and Virginia at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, and the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University, among others. She is the owner of Egg in Nest Art Studio, a private art studio providing instruction in drawing, painting, and art appreciation. Her husband is a marine scientist at NC State and they have three grown children.
