John Gerrard: Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas) 2017

To coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) presents a powerful work by John Gerrard in the courtyard of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Supported by the Ministry of Culture of Spain, the work is freely accessible to the public from December 2−13, 2019.

Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas) 2017 is a life-like simulation of a flag, which is formed by endlessly emitting trails of thick black smoke. Originally commissioned to commemorate Earth Day in 2017, the flag is placed on a pole in a real-time replica of a salt dome field in Spindletop, Texas, the birthplace of the modern oil industry. A significant proportion of the CO2 released by burning petroleum from Spindletop is still with us, part of the vastly expanding CO2 concentration within the earth’s atmosphere.

For Gerrard, the black flag made of smoke is a symbol of the Western world, of its energy-devouring and hyper-accelerated economic world order. It is a marker of the slow environmental violence directed at the biosphere, hinting at the dark legacy of Western supremacy and colonialism. A violence that is so formless, obscure, and incremental that it is nearly impossible to capture in images. A violence whose effect is delayed and will be felt by generations to come.

“Western Flag is a carbon object for a burning world, a monument to a century of consumption. Flying for COP25 the invisible risk that is CO2 potentially has an image, a way to represent itself politically.” John Gerrard 

“Artists have the capacity to create iconic images that capture imaginations. Their imprints on our collective consciousness have the potential to instigate wide-reaching public discourse and contribute to a cultural response to the environmental emergency that we are facing today. Contemporary art has the ability to convey captivating messages that help us understand and empathize with issues that are otherwise too big, too explosive, or too removed to grasp individually or on a rational level.” Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, founder and chairwoman of TBA21.

Founded in 2002 in Vienna, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen family’s commitment to the arts. TBA21 has the goal of disseminating transdisciplinary art projects that defy traditional categorization. As TBA21 believes that art has the capacity of being a transforming force, the foundation explores new modes of production and presentation aimed at provoking the audience and inspiring change. Many of the projects and exhibitions conducted by TBA21 in more than seventeen years of activity have addressed the issue of climate escalation, trying to create awareness in society through artists’ work on this pressing issue. 

The work will be on view 24/7 at the courtyard of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, December 2–13, 2019.

Related events

Saturday, December 7, 10am 
Roundtable in collaboration with IE University in the Zone Bleu at COP25, on Art and Sustainability with the participation of Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, founder and chairwoman, TBA21; Markus Reymann, director, TBA21–Academy; José Luis de Vicente, curator and researcher; and Catalina Tejero, Director of the Arts & Humanities Division in IE University. 
COP25 – IFEMA, Avenida del Partenón, 5, Madrid

Tuesday, December 10, 7:30pm
Roundtable: COP25 as Fieldwork
Introduction by Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, founder and chairwoman, TBA21, with curator and researcher José Luis de Vicente and artists Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and John Gerrard.
Auditorium, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8, Madrid
Please RSVP: entradas.museothyssen.org