Flags In The Square

Tuesday 10 March, Cathedral Square, Christchurch. I had seen photos of the wrecked cathedral a number of times on the Internet, but, like anything else, one wants to look at the real deal and see it in the flesh. To the right of the ruins, I saw this large number of plain coloured flags hanging in a huge grid pattern.

“…With its intensity of colour and unexpectedly graceful, rippling movement, Sara Hughes's vast flag wall brings a lift to the space, as well as to many who have already encountered it. The work is part of the Transitional Cathedral Square artist project, which also includes large scale interventions, closer to the Cathedral, by Chris Heaphy. This project was first unveiled to the public with the reopening of the Square on 6 July 2013…”

“…Hughes says she wanted to create a work for Cathedral Square that had a lightness of touch and incorporated an aspect of the Square left standing after the earthquakes and the demolition. Flag poles and the flags they fly are symbols laden with meaning and history. It was my intention in creating a wall of flags (648 in total hung between the poles) that the work would take a protective role within the Square and that the movement and colour of the flags would blow optimism and good will into the site. The scale of the work draws attention to the buildings that are not there. The colours of the flags I selected were in contrast to the grey and dusty environment I experienced on site visits to the red zone before the Square was opened last year…”