Rockefeller Center's 2023 "The Flag Project" Curates DOEprojekts' "Mormors Syltkakor" into Exhibition, Archives

Deborah and Glenn (DOEprojekts Art Collaborative) were pleased to have "Mormors Syltkakor" (Grandma's Jam Cookies) chosen for the 2023 edition of Rockefeller Center's "The Flag Project." This year, the outdoor public exhibition is co-curated by City Harvest, the world's first and the city's largest food rescue organization dedicated to feeding New Yorkers in need. The 2023 theme celebrated "New York City's food and dining in all its many forms."

The free public exhibition, featuring 193 flags, opened on April 3, 2023. The flags will be displayed from April 3-12 and April 17-30, 2023 in Rockefeller Center, Manhattan, New York. After the conclusion of the exhibition, the flags will become part of Rockefeller Center's archives.

At least one DOEprojekts' flag design has been chosen for each edition of "The Flag Project." DOEprojekts entered several flag designs in the first iteration in 2020, one that invited artists to celebrate New York City in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"NYC Green" was chosen in 2020 (lower right, above). In 2021, Rockefeller partnered with the world-renowned art-photography organization Aperture to curate the second exhibition -- our "NYC Garden" was selected (lower left, above). In 2022, the co-curating organizations were The Climate Museum, The United Nations Environment Programme, and Tishman Speyer; our "Clear Skies" flag perfectly fit the "Just One Earth" theme (upper right, above). We thank City Harvest and Rockefeller Center for including "Mormors Syltkakor" in this year's exhibition (upper left). 

 

We submitted several entries to the 2023 flag food-and-dining-themed competition because we love food and we love to cook! Here are some of our images that were not selected:

Upper left: Homemade lattes in Geoffrey Beane yellow drum mugs--we've had these mugs "forever" and use them on special occasions. 

Upper right: Our wedding anniversary meal at Copinette restaurant in Midtown East, NYC. 

Lower left: Starbucks Reserve in Chelsea serves a tasty charcuterie tray, and we love their Whisky Barrel-Aged Cold Brew Coffee!

Lower right: We really thought that our "Egg Flag" would be chosen, because eggs have increased 70% in price this year, due to a number of reasons, including labor shortages and supply chain snarls. But "Grandma's Jam Cookies" triumphed over "Egg Flag."

2023 Flag Project Catalog: See other flags at this link https://www.rockefellercenter.com/flagproject;
click the catalog button at the end of the paragraph.

Deborah and Glenn

DOEprojekts.org, DOEprojekts.com (and Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)

Each One, Every One, Equal All

We, Deborah and Glenn (DOEprojekts Art Collaborative), were delighted to have the opportunity to meet artist and SAIC educator Nick Cave in December 2022. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) hosted a holiday party for SAIC alumni at Bacall's Restaurant in Manhattan, and afterward, we were invited to hear Nick Cave speak about his newest installation connecting two of Manhattan's Subway Portals (Times Square 42nd Street and Bryant Park). Cave's mosaic and video installation is titled "Each One, Every One, Equal All." [(Above L to R): Artists Julia Schmidt Healy, Glenn N. Doering, Nick Cave, Deborah Adams Doering.]

Nick Cave (b. 1959) has had a long and distinguished art career. He spoke to SAIC alums about his "sound suits," which combine dance and sculpture, and how these works became the basis for his mosaic and video installation in the subway tunnel. He described some of the challenges of working with Mayer of Munich, the atelier that produced the mosaics. His collaborative process and attention to detail inspired us.

We were also inspired by the recent Broadway play "The Collaboration." This theater production imagined the dialog between Andy Warhol (performed by Paul Bettany) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeremy Pope). In the play, the two artists are introduced by art dealer and collector Bruno Bischofberger (Erik Jensen) during a tumultuous time in the New York art world -- the 1980s. At that time, Warhol was losing some of his world-wide popularity and Basquiat's fame was rising. Bischofberger encouraged Warhol to collaborate with the younger artist for a number of reasons, one of them being that Basquiat's drug use was becoming an impediment (some might say otherwise) to his artistic output.

The play highlights the tensions between two artists who ostensibly have very different viewpoints on the role of visual art. Through playwright Anthony McCarton's script, Warhol and Basquiat debate "big life questions" such as identity, commerce, culture, faith, and death. The play is both entertaining and thought-provoking, and prompted dialog and reflection by our DOEprojekts Art Collaborative.

On a somewhat less "public" scale than subway installations or Broadway plays, our DOEprojekts collaboration drew and cut a pair of Yupo stencils in February. These stencil works continue our investigation of circular shapes using our "Coreforms."

We decided to use primary colors Yellow and Blue (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) and the primary color Red (associated with bloodshed and war) as a base for our stencil prints. Our hearts ache for the people of the Ukraine as they enter the second year of war with Russian leader Putin. Several of our prints on these primary colors included gold. Gold has many associations, including victory and compassion. 

As we continue our visual explorations, we contemplate the title "Each One, Every One, Equal All" (from Cave's installation). We interpret that title to mean that each contribution to creativity, made by everyone, equals opportunity for growth in thoughts, feelings, actions.

We wish our blog readers creative months ahead!

Deborah and Glenn

DOEprojekts.org, DOEprojekts.com (and Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)