Apostasy 1996

Woodruff Park and Surrounding Buildings, Atlanta, GA

Commissioned by:
The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad as a presentation of the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts

Dimensions:
Flags: 36 x 51’ (10.97 x 15.54 m)
Pole: 80’ (24.38 m)
Topiary Figures: 7.5 – 9’ (2.29 – 2.74 m)

Materials:
Nylon, Aluminum, Steel, Plastic, Gold

Elements:
Two Flags, Pole, Fifteen Topiary Figures

Site Description:
Woodruff Park is an urban green in downtown Atlanta, overlooked by a ring of 19th and 20th century buildings.

Project Description:

Apostasy first drew the viewer with a very tall pole upon which were hoisted two extraordinarily large flags. The flags flew together at the same height. One flag was completely white – the color of peace, surrender and purity. The other flag, framed in black, was a composite of the 197 flags of the political entities represented at the Olympics.

Fifteen topiary figures were dispersed throughout the rooftops surrounding Woodruff Park. Poised on parapet edges facing down toward the urban green and dancing flags below, the figures stood with upraised arms in a gesture that suggested both surrender and exhilaration.

Apostasy was conceived for the occasion of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The juxtaposed flags suggested the eternal dialog between politics and peace. The metamorphic human figures suggested the casting aside of politicized reality where artificial, contrived paradigms were the rule and surrendering to the very essence of nature. The work inspired curiosity and then introspection about how the Olympic athletes cast off their political divisions as they attempted to transcend all boundaries of human endurance and skill.