Italy - ALVISE BITTENTE

…a flag waves on the deck… But now there’s no deck, no link, no waving standard or banner, not even a ragged flag, nothing left to advertise. The work is supported by a rubberised canvas material, almost a bicycle inner tube, but it does not inflate anymore because the flag has become flat, without air, because there’s no wind, neither fore nor aft. Bereft of its function, the flag is becalmed, one side anchored, the other ironically ironed, pleated, captured like a yoyo or a helium balloon frozen in its movement, enchanted in a frame with nothing more to display than its own immobility.

Text by the artist