Rainbow Prayer Flags

Rainbow Prayer Flags, New Year, 2013.

 

2012-2013, 50 dyed fabric rectangles, twine, stamped ink, approximately 5′ x 6″

The studio created 50 Rainbow Prayer Flags to salute the beginning of 2013.  Placed in conspicuous public places throughout Atlanta, the strings featured six flags in the primary and secondary colors aligned in the order of the rainbow.  Each color is stamped with a single word alluding to a hope or aspiration: Red-Love, Orange-Joy, Yellow-Compassion, Green-Justice, Blue-Peace, and Purple-Liberation.

Based on ancient Tibetan and Indian traditions, hanging strings of brightly colored retangular cloth outdoors in the wind has been popular for at least a millenium.  Having gone through many interpretations over the centuries, the studio’s take on the flags as a “rainbow” welcomed in the new year.  The flags’ many positive associations include the notion that as the wind blows over them, they convey the good will of each flag to wherever that wind goes.

The installation was covered by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, WSB-TV the local ABC affiliate and Project Q.