Flag 08

CANTON (Stars)

Climate Strike - Boston, Massachusetts

Footprints gathered as protesters (most of them students) marched from City Hall Plaza to the State House to demand that our elected officials take “quick and bold action on climate change”.

FIELD (Stripes)

Fishing Vessel - Atlantic Ocean

Footprints and fish scales gathered on the deck of a fishing vessel during a trip to harvest mackerel.

CANTON DETAIL

CANTON STORY

This section of the flag was made at the Climate Strike in Boston. Students gathered at City Hall Plaza in Boston and listened to speakers who presented on climate change. They then marched on from there to the State House. I found a spot in the road halfway between the two locations where there was a truck parked so that there was a bit of a bottle neck and the marchers were really dense. and placed the plywood on the ground there.

Usually I spray contact adhesive on the plywood I’m using so that it will hold people’s footprints but I forgot the can of spray at home on the day of the march. I rode the train down to the march with a group of students and we stopped at an open air produce market right after we got off the train where we bought a box of mangoes. As the protestors approached I realized that I didn’t have the adhesive that I needed. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to gather marks from this event I cut open one of the mangoes and rubbed its juice all over the plywood to use as an adhesive. It worked great although we did have to reapply it a couple of times to make sure that the footsteps people were leaving showed up.

My daughter Olive was helping me. We yelled to the people walking in the march (it was quite loud) asking them to step on the plywood for an art project. Some people hesitated but once they heard that it was for an art project they were excited to take part.

FIELD DETAIL

FIELD STORY

This section of the flag was made on a fishing boat in the Atlantic. I asked a friend who is a fisherman if he knew of anyone going out on their boat who would be willing to take a piece of plywood and collect marks for this project. He asked another fisherman who he knew would be heading out to fish for mackerel if he would take it on his boat.

His friend took the plywood and left it on the deck of his boat during his trip. When it came back it was a bit waterlogged, covered in scales and smelly. I let the plywood dry for about a week before bringing it inside and cutting it down.