Alicia Kremser

A flag usually symbolizes the manifestation of a specific origin, site or association. My flag, however, exists simply to belong to the landscape it inhabits. It acts like a mirror—not in real time, but as a document of its first encounter with light. That moment, shaped by nature alone, ends with the first touch of rain. The flag is coated in cyanotype: Sensitised in darkness, it begins developing once raised and exposed to sunlight. Wind dictates how much surface catches light, while shaded folds remain water-soluble. In its uncontrollable appearance of a quiet collaboration between human intention and natural gesture, the flag represents a reaching out and understanding what is given. In its very substance, it at the same time is and portrays a moment of connection.

The artwork was made for What the Flag?!, an exhibition by the Very Contemoporary network, and hung at Greylight Projects in Heerlen, NL, where it is on view until further notice