Destabilized Flags / Caution
Destabilized Flags / Caution
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2023
35 flags
Obverse: Footballer painting in oil
Reverse: National flag in acrylic
Each flag on paper
14.8 x 21 cm / 5.75” x 8.25”Banner length variable
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After the trophy is raised and the confetti swept up, what remains? What does it mean when national symbols like flags and bunting exist in flimsy form, strung up during fleeting sports tournaments? The wind activates them but also unsettles them.
As I watched the English men in the 2020 Euros, a gentleman next to me heard my American accent and had some questions. What began as a lovely conversation spiraled quickly into his shouted diatribe against feminism, transgender rights, equal pay, and my being a mouthy American woman. He was unsettled.
Living in London for the last eight years, I see how my Indigenous body unsettles this center of imperialism. My thriving, my unapologetic confidence, my strength, and my mouth make uncomfortable those who feel unchallenged in their privilege.
The World Cup is meant to synonymize nationalistic ideals with sport. The joy, the passion, the freedom, the tenacity in women’s football challenges, unsettles, and destabilizes that equation.
Beware of that female joy: the orange of the footballers is a nod to “safety orange,” a hue that denotes caution ahead. Its aggressive brightness is also unapologetic as it wafts between neon yellow and deep vermilion.
Ultimately bunting is about a party: who is invited? The flags with a monochrome obverse are nations not invited: for their refusal to issue official apologies for imperialism and genocide, for not acknowledging Indigenous Peoples within their borders, for historical as well as ongoing theft of Indigenous children. Making these paintings, it felt too hard to invite Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the US.
In Destabilized Flags / Caution, the flags of invited nations feature an obverse side with the image of a female footballer in place of the actual flag, which is relegated to the reverse. Each footballer is rendered in oil paint, and the flags themselves in acrylic. Oil “history paintings” celebrating nationalistic ideas are at the top of the painting hierarchy – followed by portraiture, landscapes, still life, and the everyday. Here I have reversed that hierarchy.
However, as it is a party, each footballer painting encapsulates a key moment in women’s football. Each of the 8 debutante nations – Haiti, Republic of Ireland, Morocco, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Vietnam, and Zambia – have paintings from their moment of qualification. The three New Zealand and two Australian flags are set apart as the host nations, but also each is a portrait of the five Indigenous players on their national squads. The duality of the flags – individual and nation, Indigenous names like Aotearoa and settler names like New Zealand – reminds us that where we come from can be at odds with where we are. Even so, we will celebrate.
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As a complementary project, I’ve created a 2023 FIFA World Cup wall chart, which highlights the Indigenous Peoples, gender and LGBTQIA+ inequality, and equal pay issues pertinent to each nation. You can download it for a small donation to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.
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I’m thrilled to have installed Destabilized Flag / Caution at Baller FC’s football festival, held as a pop-up inside Signature Brew’s taproom in Haggerston, London. Baller FC have create beautiful and inclusive spaces to enjoy the football.
Baller Friends Collective is a group of friends, event producers, DJs, musicians, passionate members of the Queer community and HUGE football fans. They are building on the success of the game-changing Euros and are on a mission to grow women’s football fandom in every and any way they can.
