Western Flag (Spindeltop, Texas)

Dramatic installation in the courtyard of Somerset House by John Gerrard to mark Earth Day.

This was a huge screen with a digital simulation of a flag pole with a flag of black smoke placed in the landscape of the Lucas Gusher, the world’s first major oil find which is now exhausted. The work was only on site for a few days but is a continual computer generation where the landscape mirrors the real site with the sun rising and falling at the correct times. The landscape very slowly revolves around the flag.

The work looked very impressive in this stately setting and had the added life of being broadcast as a television interruption on Channel 4, who had sponsored the work, on 22 April, Earth Day.

Closed on 27 April 2017

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