The City of Atlanta – Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs is pleased to share Sara Hornbacher’s “The Final Flag,” an excerpt from “PRECESSION OF THE SIMULACRA,” in our first-ever virtual exhibition.
Premiering digitally on the OCA’s Facebook page on Monday, November 2 at 3 PM, the virtual and social-distanced installation features remixed video work created by pioneering video artist Sara Hornbacher. The exhibition will also be on view at Gallery 72 (72 Marietta St. NW, Atlanta, GA) through the exterior gallery window from Monday, November 2, 2020, to Wednesday, January 21, 2021.
Created in 1988, the excerpt is the final leg of a 22-minute video responding to attempts to abridge artistic or political use of the American Flag.
The Flag Finale represents the third order of the simulacra, where reality is immediately contaminated by the simulacrum. The stabilized form of the code is corrupted and separated.
At this stage of representation, the conventions of individuality and community are experienced as by-products of ‘memory’ (both human and technological), as the socializing power shapes the immediate sense of self within the techo-luminous spectacle.
The soundtrack, composed by the artist in collaboration with Brooks Williams at Harmonic Ranch, builds to a telemetric electro-frenzy, incorporating fragmented melodic strains of American patriotic songs along with Shelley Hirsch’s near-hysterical vocals as the image of the flag ‘whites out.’
To experience this virtual exhibition, watch the video below.