Middle Grey

My project shows a pattern to which ideas can be applied. The starting point of my project is the flag – as a graphic sign, symbol, but also an object. As a tool for communication through minimised resources and compression of information, it becomes a synthesis. Attaching a sheet of material to a shaft is read without ambiguity: as a manifesto, a message. I treat the flag as a pattern to appropriate ideas, the truth, according to their senders.

Greyness is a particular neutral point, and any deviation in either direction already determines an attitude. In terms of ideas, greyness is a shade, a pattern that by standardisation, balance and discipline can be used for filling it with content. Greys may indicate equilibrium. Not so much of the immutability and consistency of the greyness itself, but the pattern’s.

I have created a situation in which both message sender and tool are unified. My intention was to prepare a fully neutral, semantically pure environment. The only area I consciously left behind is the human factor – waving the flag. Fatigue, inability to continue, exhaustion to the limits result from the continuous use of the tool, continuous transmission of the message. The rhythm and pace of waving the flag, the rhythm of the heart and breath of the performer – desynchronization turns into synchronization. The recording time, or the time the person used the flag, is the period from full energy to complete exhaustion, inability to continue. Capturing the action fully – using one camera, without editing or manipulation, shows what was the most important for me.