Written on the Wind | The Rubin Museum Flag Project at VSC
Written on the Wind: The Flag Project
September 19, 2008 – October 16, 2008
Opening September 19, 2008, 7pm
The Vermont Studio Center, Red Mill Gallery
Johnson, VT
The Vermont Studio Center (VSC) and the Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) of New York are pleased to present, Written on the Wind: The Flag Project, an exhibition of contemporary art and design that links the traditional and the contemporary, community and museum, artist and audience (on view from September 19, 2008 through October 16, 2008 at VSC’s Red Mill Gallery). The works on view were originally contributed to RMA to be produced in the form of Tibetan prayer flags to welcome RMA to Chelsea on the occasion of its grand opening in October 2004.
RMA houses an esteemed collection of Himalayan art. The paintings, pictorial textiles, and sculpture are drawn from cultures that touch upon the 1,800 mile arc of mountains that extends from Afghanistan in the northwest to Myanmar (Burma) in the southeast and includes Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, and Bhutan. The larger Himalayan cultural sphere, determined by significant cultural exchange over millennia, includes Iran, India, China, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.
In early summer 2004, artists Kiki Smith and Arlene Shechet, working with RMA start-up team, reached out to more than 100 contemporary artists and asked them to design a flag to fly at the RMA’s opening. Written on the Wind: The Flag Project brings viewers eye to eye with the flags so that the individual and different messages can be closely explored. The flags will be presented in mediums ranging from acrylic on canvas and digital prints to fabric and etching print.
VSC, the largest artists and writers residency in the U.S., is proud to host this extraordinary exhibition as it travels to Vermont in 2008. VSC aims to support artists and writers by providing studio residencies in a non-competitive international community, honoring creative work as communication of spirit through form. Of the fifty-two flags presented in the VSC exhibition, half were created by former Visiting Artists to the Studio Center such as Gregory Botts, Emily Cheng, Andrew Ginzel, Glen Goldberg, Jene Highstein, David Kapp, Steve Keister and Stephen Westfall.
A full-color catalog that documents the original project and accompanies the exhibition, The Flag Project: Contemporary Artists Celebrate the Opening of a New Museum, will be available for purchase at the Red Mill Gallery.
