Pacific, 1996
When I originally saw this work I wasn't so much interested in the flags or worried too much what the piece was about - but I was immediately intrigued by the materials used in the piece. The flags were presented in perspex boxes, and inside are flags which look to have eroded somehow. I initially thought that this was polystyrene, that had been rubbed away in parts, as the texture looked very similar. On reading up on the piece I discovered that it was in fact sand inside the perspex boxes, and ants had been released inside them, to create these tunnels between the grid-like flags as a comment on migration. It's the idea of erosion and the fading of the bright flags that I am drawn to. I think because they are images that we all recognise so much, it makes the fading away of them even more symbolic. I am interested in this idea of fading away in my own work, in relation to memory. Yanagi's piece has made me think more about my own work. Although I have since found out that it is made from sand, I am interested in my initial misconception of it being made from polystyrene. I would like to try using polystyrene in my own work to create some of the fragmented images; cutting it away or using certain liquids to dissolve parts of it and make it disintegrate.
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