Flip

Flip, 2001

Art Workshop Lazareti, L.A./Croatia Exchange, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

For this project I designed four large banners that were a collage of common garden flags from American popular culture each measuring approximately 14 to 23 feet long and about 3 to 3 1/2 feet wide. Dubrovnik is an amazing walled city dating from the 13th century that is beautifully restored and is also a vigorous working community. The placement of my banners with their contemporary pop iconography within the context of this resonant cultural site with its Renaissance era architecture created a compelling link between past and present, culture and history.

In order to complete my work I met several times with Slaven Tolj, director of the project in Dubrovnik, to walk through the city and select possible sites for the four banners. Slaven obtained permission from the city fathers to hang the banners in four compelling locations: outside the main gate to the city, on the walls by the harbor and above the fountain in the central square outside city hall. In each case the placement created a lot of attention not only from the artists and visitors in the city for the summer festival but by the general population.