stillness, movement, surrender and emergence
a series of flags by british artist richard stone
I started to explore the idea of a flag in marble in 2014, as I was fascinated by the sculptural challenge of making something light and ephemeral out of a permanent and solid material like stone. Further, the flag is archetypal, a symbol of the possession of territory. In these works, I unmake those associations, instead pointing beyond the historic to something more transcendent.
only from the ruins will you be free (2020)
statuario marble, 95 x 55 x 22cm
only in the ruins will you be free (2014, private collection)
statuario marble 92 x 62 x 12cm
“Stone is not selling us transcendent escapism, he is selling us participant freedom through investigation. He wants us to ask, ‘What collective world do we want?’ The blank flag is both ready to be painted anew and also a vacuum of national meaning.”
“Carved from the material of the mountain, the marble flag reflects on nature’s boundaries and man’s territories. If we imagine a flag bearer claiming a mountain, I provoke a question as to the relevance of that position in the first place. Indeed, I hope that the flag’s frozen movement captures the fallibility of permanence.”
behind the scenes
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