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Within our socially progressive society, we unfortunately still witness discrimination based on one’s race, culture, sexuality and gender. These acts of intolerance can be expressed by anyone. Including your own family. So how does one stand their ground against such hate without starting a brawl? Well simple. All it takes is one wardrobe and several hundred flags.
Whilst living with my folks, I wanted to make a miscellaneous collage of flags on my wardrobe doors as décor. This was approved by my Mum on the condition I didn’t put up the “Gay Flag”. Whilst it wasn’t my intention to put up a pride flag, this unprovoked act of hate struck me as a comment that needed to be contested. To overcome this challenge, I needed to find a way to apply malicious compliance to the rule.
It was essential to confirm the canvas size I was working with. This meant I needed to measure the overall wardrobe length and width (204cm x 82cm) and the six divided sections within it (34cm x 82cm).
With these measurements, I sprang to action outsourcing flags that can make a sufficient body for each section. To be featured on the mural, a flag needed to pass the following expectations:
Several days were allocated to outsourcing and thoroughly researching the history of each of these flags. Surprisingly, many of the flags I sourced were so obscure that some lacked high-resolution images. This resulted in me needing to create high-resolution recreations via Adobe Illustrator.
Once compiling each division with the appropriate flags, I possessed a body of content totaling 63 flags per section. To broaden visual diversity in the final design, the selected flags were printed out in 3 sizes:
All printed flags were then arranged onto the wardrobe using Blu Tack to minimize mess. Rearrangements where needed to fit the greatest number of flags onto the available canvas space.
In two months, I combined a total of 241 flags to display a photo mosaic rendition of the pride flag. This mosaic effect can be viewed from a distance. But closer inspections of the piece will showcase all the diverse ranges of flags that make up the mural. Many flags represent countries, organizations, prefectures, movements and so much more.
The choice to omit the Union Jack from the mural was made to feature more distinctive flags.
Since moving into my unit, the mural has seen an expansion and update in its content. Now displaying 324 flags on a 3-doorwardrobe.
To celebrate the mural's completion, I posted a picture of it to Reddit explaining the context for its conception. To utter shock, the post achieved immediate virality in more ways than one:
Committing to the project was a tedious process that could have easily ended with little recognition. But the sudden public interest was a surreal experience I look upon fondly. Knowing that a simple act of transgression can unite so many people from across the globe gave a broader sense of purpose to my artistry.
In retrospect, my initial way of making the mural had some shortcomings which ranged from:
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