How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag (Study) emerges from a series of works where the artist has seasoned, battered, and fried small U.S. flags in oil. For Kiyan Williams, the seasonings become pigments, the flag becomes canvas, and the hardened coatings of food combine elements of sculpture to a painterly artwork. While the work references everyday American culinary culture, the use of spices here also refers to early colonial expansion in search of the highly lucrative commodities. Using familiar materials and processes, Williams obscures and abstracts the flag as a symbol of state power. How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag (Study) deconstructs and re-constructs the meaning that a U.S. flag carries. The works in this series became studies for larger works made during live, participatory performances in which the public joined the artist in seasoning and frying the U.S. flag.