By Taylor Dobbs, News Staff
Two flags hung this week from the ceiling in the lobby of International Village have ignited controversy among Northeastern students, some going as far to say they’re an attack on America.
The flags together are an art piece titled “Exploded View.” They’re both formatted as American flags, but on each, one color is missing. The result is two flags – one red and white, one white and blue – that are similar to, but not the same as, the American flag.
The piece is part of a gallery in International Village called “We the Designers,” which will be featured on the first two floors of the building through Dec. 15 and is a collection of politically oriented works from artists across the country.
Thomas Starr, a professor in Northeastern’s Department of Art and Design, dreamt up “Exploded View” as the centerpiece to the gallery “We the Designers.” He said the work was an effort to express the lack of cooperation across party lines in Washington over the last year or so.
“What we’ve seen … is a total breakdown between the Democrats and the Republicans, or between the red and the blue,” Starr said.
But since “Exploded View” went up last weekend, it has raised eyebrows and sparked intense debate through social media. Now, more than 100 students have joined a movement started by the president of Northeastern University College Republicans (NUCR) to demand the flags be taken down.
The exhibit is a display of political graphic design, a form of art which the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign banked on, using the iconic image of Obama’s face over the word “hope” and the stylized “O,” which also appears in the exhibit.
NUCR sees “Exploded View” as the opposite of American. A statement issued Monday night by the group’s executive board said the exhibit crossed a line.
“The graphic artists clearly have shown their skill and talent for their field,” the statement reads.
NUCR charges the exhibit’s creators are not responsible in their handling of political issues.
“The most alarming quality of the exhibit is the dismembered Flag of the United States that hangs above the exhibitors’ heads when viewing the pieces of the wall,” the group said, demanding “the permanent removal of the dismembered flag immediately.”
But “Exploded View” is not technically a dismembered flag, Starr said. It was custom-made by a company that makes American flags. None of the components of either flag, he said, were ever part of a complete American flag. Starr would not give the company’s name because he didn’t want to draw them into such a politically charged debate.
NUCR President Eric Armbruster created the Facebook event “Unite to Remove this Un-American Flag” in opposition to the piece. He said he’s offended as an American, not as a Republican.
“I’m not taking offense to the anti-GOP, the Republican bashing [in other pieces in the exhibit], that’s whatever,” he said. “You hear it all the time, but [the flags are] more of an attack on our country at first glance, and it’s a little shocking. If I were a Democrat, I’d be just as upset.”
“Nobody should be forced to view this atrocity,” Armbruster wrote on the event wall. That wall received more than 20 comments in its first day from both sides of the issue.
Starr said he was glad to hear there was debate.
“All these messages are intended to initiate a discussion,” he said. “That particular piece is meant to epitomize the spirit of the exhibition which is bi-partisanship.”
The disparity is represented by the lack of both colors together on either of the flags.
“The idea was to make something that only exists as a symbol of the country if you bring the two elements together,” Starr said. “Neither of those flags is the flag of the United States of America,” he said.
Callie Guy, communications director for Northeastern University College Democrats, said the flags did just what Starr intended them to do – spur discussion.
“The point of the exhibit, if you read the description, is that all of this work is intended to stir up controversy in a way and make people talk about what’s going on,” she said. “I think that the flag piece really does that and that if some people are uncomfortable with it or challenged by it, that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t still be there because we encounter uncomfortable and challenging things all the time in a university setting. That’s why we’re here.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the exhibit, the university still plans to host discussion events with Starr and other organizers for students and other members of the Northeastern community in the coming weeks.
