Artist Project / New World Order

There is, it’s said, safety in numbers. One familiar response to fear is to huddle together, the mass of the huddle often directly proportional to the scale of the threat. And what’s a flag but the symbolic representation of numbers—the family, the clan, the kingdom, the nation? The flag signals an alliance. It says: Hurt me, hurt my compatriots (at your peril, of course).


But what happens when your flag becomes a kind of target? When one’s national alliance becomes grounds for political assassination? Our special New World Order wallpaper proposes a new kind of symbolic shield, drawing on all the power of familiar devices: the national flag, the coat of arms, the heraldic emblem. But our protective device draws so widely and displays such a chaotic array of symbols, icons, and references that it confuses even the most determined aggressor. Are you with us or against us? Who can say?


The New World Order project is part of the exhibition “Fear Gear” (www.feargear.org [link defunct—Eds.]) curated by Euridice Arratia and Elizabeth Beer that will open at Roebling Hall, NYC in the spring of 2005 and subsequently travel to Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.