Scott Tyler (born 1965), known professionally as Dread Scott, is an American artist whose works, often participatory in nature, focus on the experience of African Americans in the contemporary United States. His first major work, "What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag" (1989), was at the center of controversy regarding the desecration of the American flag.
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Early life and Art Institute of Chicago
Scott was raised in Hyde Park, Chicago, the only son of his father, a photographer, and mother, who was "largely a housewife" but became a travel agent when Scott's father fell ill. For twelve years, he attended the upper-class Latin School, where other students often directed racial slurs towards him. Scott attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and later moved to New York City to begin his artistic career. His adopted name, Dread, had multiple meanings: it evoked Dred Scott, a black slave who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom during the 1850s, was an allusion to the dreadlocks of Rastafarians, and reflected a desire to cause "dread" among others.
In 1989, while attending the Art Institute, he exhibited "What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag", a participatory work which invited viewers to write comments on a mounted ledger. The work consisted of a collage, which featured flag-covered coffins and South Korean students burning the American flag, and an American flag placed on the ground beneath the aforementioned ledger; viewers were seemingly directed to step on the flag to leave messages, though it was possible to avoid touching the flag by approaching the ledger from the side. The exhibit was intensely controversial; several major politicians, including George H. W. Bush, condemned the exhibit, and it prompted attempts to make flag desecration illegal in the United States.
Later works
In response to the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Scott created a flag inspired by one flown by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), reading "A MAN WAS LYNCHED BY POLICE YESTERDAY"; Scott's flag was flown at the Jack Shainman Gallery in Manhattan.