Frank Benson, Flag (Union Jack), 2013.
To accompany his new work Flag (Union Jack) installed on the roof of the ICA’s Regency building, New York-based artist Frank Benson has created a special limited edition print. Benson’s sculpture reflects the artist's on-going fascination with the depiction of arrested motion and the use of digital tools in the creation of sculpture. To create the flag, an image of the Union Jack flag was mapped onto a three-dimensional plane created in a computer animation programme. The plane was then subjected to simulated wind and turbulence, and a still from the animation was chosen as the pattern of the sewn nylon flag. Even when flat, these manipulations give the flag the appearance of billowing in high wind – contorting and disfiguring its stripes while remaining implausibly constrained to a rectangle.
Benson in this way confuses the distinction between the flag as image and the flag as object. The rippled appearance of the Union Jack when it is flown – an unintentional consequence of climate – has been intentionally translated onto the flag’s design. Benson’s edition for the ICA, also entitled Flag (Union Jack) and published in conjunction with his exhibit, distils the rippled image of the flag in motion as a silkscreen print on paper.
Medium: Silkscreen print on Somerset Radiant White paper
Edition of 50,
Signed and numbered
Price: £150 for ICA Members (Normal price: £200)
This limited edition Frank Benson print is available at ICA London here
