All Photos By Gail

Hank Willis Thomas frequently repurposes imagery from popular culture, especially as it pertains to race and representation. A Suspension of Hostilities (2019 ) faithfully replicate the iconic muscle car from the 1980’s hit TV show The Dukes of Hazzard. Named the General Lee after Robert E. Lee, the car was famous for its airborne leaps along the hilly Georgia back roads, with the characters of Bo and Luke Duke at the wheel, typically in flight from the local law.

Its horn played the first 12 notes of “Dixie,” a minstrel song that served as the de facto Confederate national anthem. In Thomas‘s sculpture, a replica of the car, which included the confederate flag emblazoned on its roof, stands vertically facing the viewer. The actual Robert E. Lee famously surrendered his fight at Appomattox Court House in 1865, a “suspension of hostility“ that ended the civil war.

Like many Americans, Thomas watched The Dukes of Hazzard growing up, calling in his favorite TV show, and even owning Duke action figures, and a model of the car itself. “My grandmother watched it with me. My mother watched it with me. There was never any mention or suggestion that there was a problem with the context or the Confederate flag.” The television show exemplifies how Confederate iconography became part and parcel of American pop culture under the guise of rebellion, heritage, and popular entertainment.

Photographed as Part of the Exhibit Monuments at the MOCA Geffen Museum in Los Angeles.