Police Flag (2009)

Rotating beacons, extension cords, strip outlets, tupperware, shelving
(approx. 120 x 72 x 12 inches)

The merger of red, white, and blue police beacons into the American flag motif enhances the flag's primary purpose as a means of identification and marker of territory ("This spot is American") by heightening its visual impact with lights and motion. This merger also serves to reinforce the supposed ideologies of the United States that are already present in the flag's symbolism on an international scale-- things typically defined "clearly American." Such ideologies include the belief in the rule of law, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, liberal democracy, legitimized authority, economic success, and acting "for the common good" of all people, among others.

First installed in Ithaca, New York's Cayuga garage, the flag claims the space (a long vacant commercial space next to an international financial services firm inside a newly constructed seven-story parking garage), not only as American territory, but perhaps as the recent culmination of a long history of developing American ideology.