INSTALLATION

AMERICAN FLAG: Anthology One

AMERICAN FLAG -Anthology One, 2016
art installation mix media

American Flag represents a “giant photo album,” that is part of a wider project NO FASHION PLACES OF AMERICA.

The creative approach of this installation derives from the desire of experimenting and engaging, in an attempt to exhibit a hundred images that share a common theme, without using a traditional setup and avoiding hanging the photographs on the wall in a fixed structure.

All the photographs of American Flag have been taken during a series of trips in the United States over the past ten years. By playing on the evident/clear American mood of his visual research, Yuri Catania built a 3D wooden American flag, and he used its stripes as shelves to place the hundred squared images, individually cropped and framed for this installation.

This particular structure allows modifying the position of each photograph that can slide and move on different tracks.

Yuri Catania’s intention is to create an interactive installation, which allows the viewer to play with his American memories.

This makes American Flag an alive artwork. The installation changes and becomes unique thanks to the different approach of every user who is free to identify and interpret the subjects of each photograph in an entirely personal manner and mix the images of the artwork according to his own taste.

The set up created by the artist was initially organized by categories and clusters of images, but it can be completely re-arranged by each visitor. On a visual level, this process triggers new sequences and the creation of new stories within the installation itself.

The images selected for American Flag are intentionally direct and clear. A large series of snapshots depicting a long and intense journey. Each photograph conveys a theme linked to the American culture and lifestyle. American Flag is a re-mixable travel journal. In order to give all the photos a consistent squared format, the artist has cropped all the images and changed their proportion from 2:3 to 1:1

The first American Flag, titled Anthology 1 (a tribute to The Beatles Album) was exhibited for the first time in Milan on the occasion of MIA Photo Fair 2016.

The photographs forming the first installation are all featured in the book No Fashion Places of America: an anthology of visual themes explored during Yuri Catania’s journeys in the USA.

American Flag Anthology One (size1,76cm x 3.5 cm) by Yuri Catania

is an interactive installation that hosts 90 photographs (14cm x 14cm each photo).

Unique piece.