Fifty New Rochelle High School students explored the meaning of a flag(s) with an international artist when they wrote down what flags meant to them on a white banner almost a quarter-mile long, then buried it at Davenport Park.
Unification, supremacy, war, peace: Students wrote those words and more on the flag as part of “Here Lies a Flag.” The event was the brainchild of Miguel Braceli, an international artist in residence with the Venezuelan Arts Endowment for the Arts in New Rochelle.
While two drummers from the high school band played impromptu, the students organized themselves to form patterns with the flag – a circle, a zigzag and so on. They then streamed the sheet down a large stretch of the lawn, where they placed it in a grave dug for this purpose by the New Rochelle Department of Parks & Recreation. Soon the spot will be marked with a monument.
“The students were thrilled to participate in a performance-art project on such a grand scale – and with an international artist who has commemorated it on his website,” said Alexi Brock, one of four New Rochelle High School art teachers who helped. “It began with a discussion of what a flag can represent, which was a poignant, timely discussion to have.”