The State of the Union
Exhibition: from 14th March to 20th April
Private view: 13th March from 7-9pm

What would a mark be that one could not cite? And whose origin could not be lost on the way?

- Jacques Derrida, Margins of Philosophy

T1+2 Gallery presents a solo exhibition of artist Godfried Donkor. For this show Donkor has focused on an artistic discussion of the symbolism of the flag and its multiple and at times contradictory uses and appropriations. For this purpose he has used the Financial Times (FT) sheet as working material, thus depriving the chosen flags from their colours and underscoring their shapes as well as their FT composition.

By using collage on board and oil on FT paper, the artist presents the viewer with alternative, colourless versions of national flags as well as pirate flags on whose FT surfaces layers of red and dark, almost metallic indigo (significantly Donkor never uses black) depict the symbol of piracy. The choice itself of the national flags is symbolic in its past and current political meaning – USA, UK, Confederate, Lebanese, Iranian, Saudi Arabian, Israeli, Chinese and USSR. Also symbolic is the juxtaposition of these with the Jolly Roger flag, sign for the stateless outlaws since the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century worldwide piracy whose actions disrupted the so-called legal, righteous and safe maritime trade of European nations.

Generally, the artist intends to explore issues of perception of symbols and discuss the significance of the appropriation of or association with these by the individual and the masses. Donkor is interested in the often veiled power of signs in the way they contribute to a general and sometimes distorted feeling of belonging. Therefore, he attempts to disrupt this by means of mutating symbols that are usually taken for granted, such as flags. What happens to a flag’s meaning when it is deprived from one of its most symbolic elements - colour? Accordingly, the artist asks: ‘Is the form as powerful without the colour?’. Also, he wonders whether or not ‘the FT becomes the national symbol when the colour of flags is thus erased’. In fact, the disappearance of colour under the layered usage of the FT sheet might embody the potential symbolism of an ever increasing, concealingly imposed unification of nations under the power of media and capital.

Moreover, the inclusion of the Confederate, Rebels or Dixie flag, whose origin goes back to the US Civil War (having been chosen as the national flag by the Southern states fighting against the Union) highlights the paradoxical nature of the adoption and re-adoption of symbols. In effect, this flag of so-called Rebels who were actually conservative forces wanting to maintain the status quo of slavery was adopted by and can still be seen today in precisely those states that had and still have a majority of black population. This exhibition, therefore, urges us to seriously stop and think about the ‘state of the union’.

Godfried Donkor in conversation with Helena Blaker at T1+2 Gallery, 12.04.08