This mini feature showcases one of the eighteen open submission portfolios selected for inclusion in our printed journal based on the theme of the right to roam
Walking is a big part of my life and is the basis to much of my working practice as an artist.
Whether I am on the streets of the city or the footpaths in the countryside, I walk in order to connect with the environment.
Although most of us can only experience the land we live on through a restricted network of designated public ‘rights of way’, our desire to roam freely remains crucial to our sense of being.
In my project ‘FLAG’, I am interested in how the landscape has evolved through the continuous enclosure and privatisation of land and the arrangement of that land into nations and then the rearrangement of these lands beyond their borders into empires.
National flags are perhaps the most emotive symbols of power and control on the Earth. They flutter across the surface of the planet not only as signifiers of ethnic and cultural diversity but also as potent instruments of division and conflict.
Since 2007, I have been photographing national flags in the landscape within a 4 km radius of my home in rural West Sussex with the intention of “emptying” their significance.
(The following extract is from the Introduction to my book ‘Flag Vol1’)
There is something of the uncanny about Holligan’s quest to display and document a palette of flags from around the world, one by one in isolation, as a backdrop to various locations within walking distance of his home. The paradoxes are many. The flags, in contradiction with their inherent purpose, finally become the aesthetic objects whose status they always resisted yet were always at risk of becoming.
…walking onto privately owned land with flag in hand, Holligan ‘marks the spot’ as if surreptitiously staking his territorial claim or right to it. Knowingly intrusive, his act of trespass blatantly disrupts the rural idyll while effectively offering a complex reading of the situation. Continually working in close proximity to his home, Holligan makes us aware of his environment, despite the flags’ consistent presence and centrality. He shows how the various human activities, the changing seasons and weather conditions can transform the landscape, but also how we view flags. Sometimes actively fluttering from a pole, sometimes in passive suspension across an open space or draping limply over an object, the flag on occasions loses its impact, at others it dominates it entirely. When he photographs with the light, the flag appears to illuminate within and when he photographs against the light, the chiaroscuro effect reveals the delicate translucence of the flag’s material structure and it assumes an ethereal transience that totally disempowers it as it becomes subsumed by its surroundings. At times it seems that Holligan is playing with the endless permutations that are possible in the interplay between these transient symbols and the perpetuity of the natural settings in which they are depicted. At other times we can sense a real serial, strategic deliberation in his method. The choice of how we perceive these fascinating images is ours.
The full set of images from the open submission are shown below (click to view image larger in the original format).
CREDITS
Unless otherwise stated, all words and images in this article are © Andrew Holligan
THE JOURNAL
Our biggest, most content packed, and socially current publication to date, exploring the theme of the right to roam. Featuring an introduction by our very own co-founder Rob Hudson and a selection of work from 37 contributors, including the one featured above. Click on the image of the journal cover below to take you to the journal’s information and ordering page.
