Pledges of Allegiance

Pledges of Allegiance

Jun 6–Jul 3, 2018

June 6 – July 3, 2018
Featuring Vik Muniz

Contemporary at Blue Star is pleased to stand with Creative Time and its project Pledges of Allegiance in hoisting Vik Muniz’s Diaspora Cloud on June 6, 2018.

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

Pledges of Allegiance, launched by Creative Time, is a serialized commission of sixteen flags, each created by acclaimed artists. Conceived in response to the current political climate, Pledges of Allegiance aims to inspire a sense of community among cultural institutions, and begin articulating the urgent response our political moment demands. Each flag points to an issue the artist is passionate about, a cause they believe is worth fighting for, and speaks to how we might move forward collectively.

Participating artists include Tania Bruguera, Alex Da Corte, Jeremy Deller, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Ann Hamilton, Robert Longo, Josephine Meckseper, Marilyn Minter, Vik Muniz, Jayson Musson, Ahmet Ögüt, Yoko Ono, Trevor Paglen, Pedro Reyes, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Nari Ward.

Pledges of Allegiance is presented by Creative Time and was originally conceived by Alix Browne and developed in collaboration with Cian Browne, Fabienne Stephan, and Opening Ceremony.

ABOUT THE FLAG:
Vik Muniz’s Diaspora Cloud features a cloud floating against a blue background and cites an earlier work of Muniz’s, which was commissioned by Creative Time: Clouds, (from 2001), a “low tech illusion,” wherein clouds were “drawn” over the Manhattan skyline by a crop-dusting plane re-worked for skywriting. Diaspora Cloud, in title and image, may suggest a geographically and temporally dispersed public coming together to imagine new, if ephemeral, forms of community.

ARTIST BIO:
Photographer and mixed-media artist Vik Muniz is best known for repurposing everyday materials for intricate and heavily layered recreations of canonical artworks. Muniz works in a range of media, from trash to peanut butter and jelly, the latter used to recreate Andy Warhol’s famous Double Mona Lisa (1963) that was in turn an appropriation of Da Vinci’s original. Muniz’s Perfect Strangers is installed at the newly-opened 72nd Street subway station in New York City.

Diaspora Cloud will also be on view at the Creative Time Headquarters, 21C Museum Hotel Durham, Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, the City of Bloomington, Indiana, The Commons, in partnership with the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University, KMAC Museum, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Otis College of Art and Design, MFA Art + Social Practice, RISD Museum, SPACE, Texas State Galleries, The Union for Contemporary Art, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Wassaic Project, and Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University