Flag Unveilling: with Michael Hampton & Christina Mitrentse

About

On 17 October 2013, for the first time in over forty years, a new flag will be raised at the front of 20-21 Bloomsbury Way. Refreshments will be served from 6.30 pm and the artists will be present to launch their design. MICHAEL HAMPTON is a poet, book artist and critic whose work has appeared in Art Monthly, Frieze, and The White Review. He is especially interested in urban topography, destruction in art since the Second World War, and new forms of conceptual writing. He is currently working on a revisionist history of the artists' book with the publisher Colin Sackett. CHRISTINA MITRENTSE is a multidisciplinary artist, freelance curator and educator. She is known for vintage book-sculpture, drawing, screen-printing, and productions of site-specific installations including The Secret School and Add To My Library, an international Book Art project initiative and touring exhibition. She has exhibited at the Liverpool Biennial UK, XV Biennale de Mediterranean Thess/niki-Rome, ICA London, NDSM-werf Amsterdam, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Saatchi Gallery and Central Booking NY. ARTISTS' STATEMENT ‘The flag logo SHhhh.. plays on the initials of Swedenborg House, blending them into an imprecation to be quiet; curt yet soothing too, as in the western world silence is at a premium. In short we are sorely distracted, lacking both the time and places necessary for acts of contemplation, and therefore mental relief. Our new flag is a prototype for a site-specific public space, its ‘quiet zone' message supported by the palette of gold and black, designed to give a health-giving optical dose against the drab buildings on either side, whilst the banner-like drapery maximizes impact.'