Here's some new flags I've made very, very recently, finished last week
I had a little break from 'flag-world' while I made some black brocade works, for
the NOIR show , and now feel a slight draw back to flags, theres something magical about bleaching on flags in that you never know what its going to look like until its finished. Some blues go blue (like in Void), others go grey (like in New World), and some just fade to cream (like in Forgotten), so each piece has a big case of random chemical reactions.
The first 2 (Void & New World) will be going to
Affordable Art Fair in Bristol with
Mauger Modern who are based in Bath. I haven't ever shown my flags in the Bristol AAF, (but have in the last 2 London ones), so it'll be interesting how they are perceived.
Theres been a definate change in my flags recently, the figues are less vulnerable, they are more strong perhaps. I guess thats the positive light that Obama brings, I feel more hopeful for america now than england's foggy future. Obama has the skills to be look empathetic and clever whilst looking like a super-hero. Our boy Gordon Brown however, is mostly seen mumbling, apologysing and looking like a use car salesman, So this month I've unashamedly make 3 more American flags.
I have been attempting of late to make a denim union jack, but having spent about 4 days sewing, pinning and generally wrecking my sewing machine, I had a small hissy fit, tossed it on the fabric pile and vowed to stick to ready-mades.
Void, flag size 87 x 50 cm Dye, bleach and discharge on vintage American flag
New World, flag size 60 x 90 cm, Dye and bleaching technique on embroidered American Flag
Forgotten, flag size 87x 143 cm Dye and bleaching techniques on vintage American flag
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Hot from the magic bleaching room. Last week I finished this, my latest commision, its on a handmade palestinian flag:
It was quite a feat of sewing, (although it looks deceptively simple). Of course vintage Palestinian flags don't come up much, so i had to make it. It was surprisingly tricky to find vintage fabric that was the same colour as a palestinian flag. I've now realised that there must be super strong dyes in flags that with stand dyeing them black and bleaching back to their original colour, without going white! I tried to dye some linen green, then dyed it black and it just bleached back to white! So i made this out of a vintage Italian flag (which is a good green), and some vintage red linen, and used the flag rivets from the italian flag to finish it off.
