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Atlanta Contemporary Art Center presents Friends (For Ree) by Alex Da Corte, part of Creative Time’s Pledges of Allegiance.
Alex Da Corte’s flag is an exact replica of a drawing made by the late artist Ree Morton between May 1974 and June 1975, as part of a project idea called Something in the Wind . Ree Morton, whose life was cut short at 40, was a post-minimalist known for her handmade embroidered works. The flag celebrates friendship as an organic bond, and an act to create accidental families. The physical version of this flag was never realized during the artist’s lifetime—Alex Da Corte pays homage to the late artist by bringing her work to life.
“In celebration of Ree and all of the friend families we form, may we grow stronger and stranger every day,” says Alex Da Corte.
Participating artists in Pledges of Allegiance 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 was originally conceived by Alix Browne and developed in collaboration with Cian Browne, Fabienne Stephan, and Opening Ceremony.
Bios
Alex Da Corte
Alex Da Corte was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1980. Da Corte has had solo exhibitions worldwide, including The Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Art + Practice, and MASS MoCA, for his first survey entitled Free Roses. His collaborative work with Jayson Musson, Easternsports, originally commissioned for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in 2014, was recently included in the group exhibition Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His new immersive installation, Slow Graffiti, will be on view this summer at Vienna Secession. He lives and works in Philadelphia.
Pledges of Allegiance
Atlanta Contemporary is a participating institution in Pledges of Allegiance, a nationwide, year-long public art project featuring a serialized commission of flags created by acclaimed artists and presented by New York-based public art nonprofit Creative Time. 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.
Creative Time
Creative Time, the New York based public arts non-profit, is committed to working with artists on the dialogues, debates, and dreams of our time. Creative Time presents the most innovative art in the public realm, providing new platforms to amplify the voices of artists, including the Creative Time Summit — an international conference convening at the intersection of art and social justice.Since 1974, Creative Time has produced over 350 groundbreaking public art projects that ignite the imagination, explore ideas that shape society, and engage millions of people around the globe. The non-profit that since its inception has been at the forefront of socially engaged public art seeks to convert the power of artists’ ideas into works that inspire and challenge the public. Creative Time projects stimulate dialogue on timely issues, and initiate a dynamic experience between artists, sites, and audiences. To promote the project via social media use #PledgesofAllegiance and tag @CreativeTimeNYC (Instagram) & @CreativeTime (Twitter)