Flagging, Pia Larsen & Charles Cooper SLOT space, Sydney

25 October – 7 November 2020

Pia Larsen - Line of Sight, Last Words, The Gordian Knot

Charles Cooper - Lying in state

Four years ago, Charles Cooper and Pia Larsen staged an exhibition of flags to coincide with the USA presidential election that were playful. When they proposed a follow up show a few months ago their mood was anything but playful, and everything to do with the Trump presidency.

In the President’s self-declared era of ‘fake news’ the nuanced art of spin was replaced with narcissistic lies. Cant dictated by Rupert Murdoch and emblazoned with the idiotic catch cry, “Make America Great Again”. It begs the question, when did America stop being great?

Cooper with his coffin and Larsen with her banners identify the two glaring issues facing the USA at this election. An inability to remedy or manage the Covid-19 pandemic and the racial and economic inequalities identified by the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the subsequent black lives matter protest movement.

Together they ask a deeper question, are we watching the paragon of capitalism devolve into tacit civil war?

Tony Twigg, director SLOT