I like the space this exhibition is in – it’s hidden you have to search it out – it’s behind a locked door up some steps in a repurposed space – it’s artist-led and run voluntarily by appointment only through Eventbrite, Instagram DM (info below).
I also like the exhibition, an example of creativity triumphing over wealth which has commandeered a legal system to try and censor art and the freedom of expression. As explained below by MacDonaldStrand the artist:
‘Images are not to be altered to show a different reality as we are a news agency and cannot be seen to not be showing the truth of the moment.’
This is an extract one of the many confusing email messages we received from international picture agencies following our objections to our project No More Flags being fined thousands of pounds by a web-scraping bot copyright company. The third-party company had been used to detect infringement of the use of their images. Eventually, we had to withdraw the project.
Researching the company, we could see that aggressive communication and fines had been issued not only to two artists trying to make a point about racist thugs but also to community groups, small charities, local history societies and unwitting individuals who had used an image on their blog or shared on social media. Warning letters assert that, even if the images are immediately removed one is still liable to pay large sums of money in fines.
Our project No More Flags was sourced from photographs of extreme right-wing marches in the UK and USA. We invited people to send us images they felt threatened or appalled by, and we offered an on-demand redaction service by crudely removing the national flags shown in the images. The aim was to withdraw the asserted legitimacy of the flag-waving, faux-patriotism of these marches. We called this process ‘cathartic Photoshopping.’
Taking the flags away from these nationalists was not only therapeutic for us, but disempowering to them. The resulting images showed remarkably similar protagonists marching with blank flags, exposing the dull, mono-cultural, selfish and diminished society that they try to promote and celebrate.
No More Flags was also aimed at the commercial systems used around the distribution of these images by picture agencies and the unbalanced exposure that these right-wing fringe groups are given. The photographs seemed the result of a collaborative dance between the racist agitators and the photographers. One group wanting exposure and the other saleable content.
The outcome of this codependent relationship provides a shocking imbalance of ‘reality’ and the ‘truth of the moment.’ Instead it shows that hatred, violence and anger are newsworthy and that the far-right fully understand and use this. This new iteration of the project, which we have titled False Flags, takes the large-scale flags initially made to hang in an exhibition space alongside the incoherent soundscape of these marches and presents them as ‘burial flags’ folded in the ceremonial shape of a triangle.
‘A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party.’
MacDonaldStrand, False Flags,at Gallery DODO at Phoenix Art Space as part of Photo Fringe until 17th November open Wednesday – Sunday by appointment by Instagram Direct Message to (@aproposdodo)or email to dodoinformation@yahoo.com
Artist Talk
Sunday 10th November 11am–12pm Phoenix Art Space 10 – 14 Waterloo Place, Brighton BN2 9NB
MacDonaldStrand will talk about their ongoing practice and False Flags The Gallery will be open from 10.30AM for viewing before the talk. Free coffee and apple cake will be available in the White Room. This will be a hangover-friendly event. This event is hosted by Gallery DODO as part of Photo Fringe 2024
About
MacDonaldStrand are the partnership of Clare Strand and Gordon MacDonald. They are based in Brighton, UK. They make work in response to photographic history, politics and practice. Recent projects include Old English Pricks, a newsprint image and text set of books depicting current figures in British politics; A Fucking Photobook, a letterpress book using a regular photobook sequence, designed to submit to photobook competitions; Most Popular of All Time, a survey of the most popular images of all time (according to a Google search), each transformed into dot-to-dot drawings and No More Flags, a series of images of far right-wing marches in the UK and US, with the flags crudely removed from the images. @macdonaldstrand_
Clare Strand is an artist whose work is held in many public and private collections. She has shown extensively in group and solo shows for the past 25years.
Gordon MacDonald is an artist and editor. He was the founding editor of Photoworks magazine, co-founder of GOST Books and is currently co-founder and editor of Hapax Magazine.
