My Story is My Flag is a temporary public art project model created and led by artist Cristina Victor. Using vexillology (the study and design of flags) and public engagement, this public project is designed to work with community members through a series of workshops that empower them to create powerful and uniquely strong designs reflecting their human experience. These designs are then translated and hand produced by the artist (with the help of facilitators/collaborators) into large scale original flags that are then installed in a public space central to its community over an extended period of time. This project has been successfully executed in Missoula, MT 2020/21, Omaha, NE in 2019, Graham, North Carolina in 2018 and Oakland, California in 2016.
Cristina Victor is an avid flag nerd and her art practice is committed to creating generative exchanges about the complexities of our collective and individual human experience. She loves doing this.
Missoula, MT / 2020-2021
In collaboration with Montana Museum of Art and Culture.
60 flags design, 24 produced, each flag measuring 3 feet by 2 feet
In partnership with the Montana Museum of Art and Craft, Open AIR and the Missoula Park and Recreation Department, I worked with Missoula youth to produce my public project My Story Is My Flag. I led open air flag design workshops with over 60 campers ranging from ages 3-13. I curated the designs by the campers which were narrowed down to 20 to be digitally translated and have them professionally produced. This collection of flags exhibited how youth were experiencing pandemic/lock down life. This image documents the flag raising ceremony at the Missoula Fair Grounds for 8 of the 20 flags designed by participants.
Thank you to Missoula Park & Recreations for sharing their campers with us, OpenAir Residency for hosting me and special thanks to Hipolito Rafael Chacon and Sandy Sheppard for making this project possible in Missoula. All 20 flags are now part of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture’s permanent collection.
Graham, NC / 2018
In collaboration with Archive of Creative Culture and Co|Opertive.
12 flags hand produced each measuring 3 feet by 4 feet
Archive of Creative Culture collaborated with My Story Is My Flag to Graham, North Carolina offering residents and neighboring community members an opportunity to speak their story and translate them into flag designs for a public art installation in Downtown Graham. Through a week long of workshops participants used symbols and colors to tell their personal stories resulting in 12 flag designs that were then produced by hand by Victor and Archive of Creative Culture. Each flag tells unique stories reflecting personal, cultural and even fictional narratives.
- Images by Lacey Haslam
Oakland, CA / 2016
In collaboration with Interface Gallery and the Oakland International High school.
12 banners, each measuring 2 feet by 4 feet
The first My Story is My Flag was executed thanks to Interface Gallery with Oakland International High School students and teachers. Seven of the twelve banners were designed by the students and their teachers and Victor created five additional banners, extending the conceptual and visual impact of the project. The banners were displayed on light posts along the east side of Telegraph Avenue, from 45th Street to 51st Street, from June 14th to July 24th, 2016.
This project was undertaken during the students’ post session, an intensive three week session at the end of the school year. After learning about vexillology (the study of symbols and flags), the students worked in small collaborative groups to explore and represent their stories and aspects of their cultural and personal identities through shapes, colors and symbols. They then produced paper, to-scale designs that served as patterns for the final banners produced by hand.
Press:
Flag As Art and Identity At Oakland International High School, East Bay Express
KGPC Interviews: My Story Is My Flag
OIHS is a unique school in that it is specifically dedicated to serving very recent immigrants to the United States. The population includes students from over thirty countries who speak more than thirty-two different languages. Thirty-three percent of the students are refugees who have escaped violent conflicts in their home countries. The school is located in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood.
