Folded Flags
Inkjet prints in white Ash flag displays
24" x 12"
2011-ongoing
In the summer of 1862, following the devastating and unexpected casualties suffered during the first 15 months of the American Civil War, an act of Congress gave power to the President to purchase land for the interment of fallen soldiers. By the end of 1864 there were 27 National Cemeteries, mostly situated near to battlefields, prison camps and hospitals that offered space for permanent interment for the unclaimed and largely anonymous war dead. Today across the United States more than 19,000 acres of land in more than 180 National Cemeteries and plots are designated for the interment of US veterans and war dead.
Accompanying the right of veterans to be memorialized in national cemeteries, a tradition has grown of presenting the friends and family of the deceased with an interment flag, to be positioned atop the casket during the service. After the service, the flag is folded ceremoniously into a right triangle never to be unfurled again. Through this tradition, a corporeal link has been formed between the sacrifice of the nation’s veterans and war dead to the nation’s ideological identity.
In these compositions an expanse of green manicured lawns and the anonymous backsides of white marble headstones become the blue field and white stars of the US flag. These photographs exist as documents of the physical places of National Cemeteries, which collectively represent the nation’s conscience.
Accompanying the right of veterans to be memorialized in national cemeteries, a tradition has grown of presenting the friends and family of the deceased with an interment flag, to be positioned atop the casket during the service. After the service, the flag is folded ceremoniously into a right triangle never to be unfurled again. Through this tradition, a corporeal link has been formed between the sacrifice of the nation’s veterans and war dead to the nation’s ideological identity.
In these compositions an expanse of green manicured lawns and the anonymous backsides of white marble headstones become the blue field and white stars of the US flag. These photographs exist as documents of the physical places of National Cemeteries, which collectively represent the nation’s conscience.
