Flying Flag Flying
FXBG Advance Friday, July 3, 2026: The Morning Read
By Steve Watkins
ADVANCE EDITOR
A ‘Reconstructed’ Work for America’s 250th
I recently got an email from Shaun Leonardo, executive director of the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York, letting me and other friends know about a “reconstructed” work by the collage artist and activist John Morse that was going on display in celebration of the park’s 40th anniversary—and “in the context of the 250th anniversary of the United States.”
I’d been close friends with John since we co-edited The Blab, an underground newspaper, back in junior high school. He was a frequent visitor to Fredericksburg, and spoke on a couple of occasions to packed rooms of art and writing students at Mary Washington College when I was on the faculty there. If you’ve ever been to our house, you’ve seen prints of John’s work: the Buddha, Frederick Douglas, a flattened Earth made from shredded dollar bills. John, who died suddenly back in December, worked exclusively in his collages with found material, which is to say garbage, which his friend Elizabeth Gilbert talks about in this excerpt from a recent podcast.
(Liz and I gave the toasts at John’s and his husband Ross’s wedding celebration 15 years ago when New York finally got around to legalizing gay marriage.)
And here is what Shaun Leonardo wrote about the posthumous exhibit of John’s flag art, which will be on display for the next several months:
In celebration of the Park’s 40th Anniversary, Socrates Sculpture Park presents a reconstruction of Flying Flag Flying (1995), a work by alumnus artist John Morse originally created for Pop Up, a summer exhibition at Socrates.
The project emerged through recent archival research supported by the Mellon Foundation, which has helped uncover overlooked histories from the Park’s first decades. Among these discoveries was Morse’s practice, much of which was never fully documented due to the ephemeral nature of the flag-based works he exhibited at Socrates in the 1990s. Following the artist’s passing in 2025, the Park worked with his partner to reproduce Flying Flag Flying as part of Homecoming, a series of projects inviting alumni artists back into the life of the Park during its 40th anniversary year.
Originally installed at Socrates in 1995, Flying Flag Flying transforms a familiar image into a perceptual puzzle. An American flag waving in the wind, printed on both sides, is flown above the Park’s entrance. As the fabric moves, painted folds and real folds become nearly indistinguishable, collapsing the distinction between image and object, illusion and reality.
Presented in the context of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the work invites reflection on one of the nation’s most recognizable symbols. Through a simple but disorienting gesture, the work asks viewers to reconsider the meanings attached to the American flag and to question for whom its promises of democracy, freedom, and belonging have carried validity, possibility, or hope.
Installed at the site of the Park’s former Broadway Billboard, Flying Flag Flying also marks a moment of transition within the Park itself. The return of the work not only reactivates an important but largely forgotten chapter of Socrates’ history, it demonstrates how the archive can serve as a living resource—bringing past artists, ideas, and questions into dialogue with the present.
Shortly after its original installation, Flying Flag Flying was stolen, a rare instance of artwork ever disappearing from the Park. More than thirty years later, its return offers an opportunity to encounter the work anew and to reflect on the enduring power of public art to provoke curiosity, conversation, and debate.
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For more about the Socrates Sculpture Park, Click HERE. To learn more about John Morse’s life and work, visit Star Dog Studio.
