Personally, I’m not one for nationalisms and patriotisms, but - as long as we are to live in a world that believes in countries - a national ideal that celebrates our diversity is a place to start.
Jasper Johns painted the American flag to make it visible, to make you see it and consider it, not just look at it. The American flag is one of the few simple visual icons that connotes the idea of the United States in abstraction. After constant visual conditioning, our internal national idea has some aspect of itself that is linked to national iconography like the shapes and colors of the national flag. Thus, when Jasper Johns remixed the American flag, framed it, made it art, he turned it into a skipping stone for thoughts about our internal and collective national idea.
In that spirit of remixing the base iconography of the flag - in this case to talk about inclusivity and a national unity that respects and acknowledges a diverse population - I reimagine the American icon, a flesh tone flag.
The geometry of the flag is the same, but I have remixed the meaning. The horizontal stripes are no longer the thirteen original colonies, but instead might be imagined as the myriad human tide that flows through the veins of America. The stars are no longer fifty states, but instead could reflect that beautiful constellation of a diverse people standing together. Where the original American flag with unnaturally pristine primaries demands a sort of national ideological homogeneity, the flesh tone flag seeks unity though the acknowledgement and seeing of diversity. This is an optimistic flag, an aspirational flag, an inclusive flag, a hopeful flag of acceptance.
Flesh Tone Flag