6 - 8 p.m. PST
The University Galleries are excited to invite you to the reception for the fine art exhibition White Flags by the artist collective Finishing School on Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. and an artist talk at 6:30 p.m. followed by a question and answer period. The reception offers free admission and is open to the public.
The installation and video exhibition will open October 17 and be on display until December 20, 2024 at the University Art Gallery located in the Theatre building. Entrance is free to the gallery and it is open to the public. Gallery hours are 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday with a late close Thursday evenings at 9:00 p.m.
In a time of growing uncertainty and socio-political tension, White Flags invokes the psychological challenges we face. The installation presents white flags with text cited from military tactical manuals originally intended to guide soldiers in survival, evasion, resistance and escape. These tactics, now removed from their military context, take on new meanings. Each flag becomes a point of reflection, prompting viewers to consider how they respond to the pressures and conflicts of the world around them.
As viewers move through the space, the flags arranged with propagandistic precision evoke institutional authority and order. Yet the text they bear introduces conflict. The white flag, a symbol of surrender, is reimagined as a site for exploring how we surrender or resist in the face of power. The content challenges each person to interpret these directives through their own experiences, revealing their own tension between personal survival and societal expectations.
Ultimately, White Flags serves as a mirror reflecting the choices we face between submission and resistance. It invites us to question our standing within systems of power and control.
Based in Los Angeles and established in 2001, Finishing School is a collective comprised of artist-educators that playfully explore an expansive range of subject and media territories that respond to the current socio-political moment at the intersections of art, politics, praxis and the everyday. The collective has five members who represent a broad range of skills and research interests. Finishing School produces socially-driven interdisciplinary actions, installations, workshops, design, publications, film, studio art, performance and new media.