Flags, produced as a contribution to Anyang Public Art Project 2007, 18 October – 20 November 2007. Digital printing on fabric, dimensions variable.

The Flag of Anyang, 20/10/07–18/11/07 was proposed as a ‘new flag’ of Anyang, the one to replace the existing official flag during the period of APAP 2007. The flag as a representation of an institution often expresses the ideal or the ‘vision’ of the represented body. And the vision is usually conceptualized in the cliché terms of ‘better, faster, bigger, stronger’, which leads to undermining, rather than reinforcing, the singularity of the institution.

The Flag of Anyang, 20/10/07–18/11/07 was started from the curiosity as to the possibility of creating an identity based on true story. The flag is, in fact, an abstracted map of Anyang: it displays the ratio of land use of the city in a diagrammatic manner. The land as the most fundamental basis of a human community has traditionally played a significant role in shaping and representing national or regional identities. By clearing of any mythic notions attached to the land, and reducing it to verifiable numbers, The Flag of Anyang, 20/10/07–18/11/07 attempts the almost oxymoronic idea of ‘factual identity design’.

During the APAP 2007, The Flag of Anyang, 20/10/07–18/11/07 fluttered, sometimes alone, sometimes along with the official banners of the APAP 2007, on the streets of Anyang from the Indeokwon Intersection to various spots in Pyeongchon area.

• Filed under Exhibitions, Stuff.