Statue of Liberty Concept Drawing
29 x 40 in
74 x 102 cm
Liberty Blanket – The Statue of Liberty Project The original idea for this project was to make a 60 x 100 foot appliqued, rip-stop nylon Chief’s blanket. It was to resemble an American flag and hang on the statue over her tunic – a birthday dress. I thought of it as a way of recognizing and including Native Americans in the Statue of Liberty birthday celebration. I was able to get support pf Apache Chairman Windle Chino and Chairman of the National Tribal Council Richard La Frambois. Everyone I talked to liked the idea, but there is a hundred-year-old law against decorating a national monument in any way. At the time, Christo has been trying to wrap the Statue of Liberty for the last twenty years. It would have taken an act of Congress to do the project. The alternative plan was to weave the design, a 5 x 7-foot fourth phase Chief’s blanket, to hang inside the Statue. I felt the piece should be woven on a Navajo loom by Navajo weavers and I approached the Ramah Navajo Weaver’s Association to do the project. I spun and dyed the yarn. The flags of the fifty states are woven into the border of the piece. The Ramah weavers designed their signature to put in the weaving. The tapestry was presented in Washington D.C. to the Department of the Interior by Richard La Frambois, the Ramah weavers and me on June 30, 1986. On July 3, 1986 I went alone before the rest of the world to inspect the installation of the piece inside the Statue of Liberty. It turned out that of the 2,000 gifts offered to the Statue of Liberty by countries, states, and individuals, this was the only gift to be accepted. - NK
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