Thomas A Clark – The Flag Club, Kolham

The Flag Club

a project on Kolham by Thomas A Clark

The Flag Club was founded this Spring by Rolf van Hulten and Peter Foolen. The headquarters of The Flag Club is a green oasis in a place called Kolham, near Hornhuizen on the Hogeland, Groningen, the Northernmost region of Holland. It is a small farmer's cottage enclosed within a garden with some trees and hawthorn - and a recently installed flagpole. The surrounding landscape is almost empty as far as the eye can see, only meadows and fields and on the horizon some solitary farms and the Waddenzee dike. Often a strong wind is blowing: an ideal place to fly a flag.

The Flag Club invites artists to design a flag for this pole on this remarkable site. The first flag for this project is invented by the Scottish artist and poet Thomas A Clark.

The flag is a field of bright yellow with, in white, two words on it:

ON

BLUE

In other words, an abstract work about colour. The flag should be flown against a blue sky. On days that are grey, if the flag is flying, it may be thought of as a prayer for blue, for better weather! White lettering on yellow will not show up at a distance, the work is then pure, apparently without concept, just yellow on blue.

Kolham is not far from Pieterburen, the village where the Pieterpad starts, a walking way to the Sint-Pietersberg near Maastricht in the South: the journey brings the traveller eventually to the hills of Holland and you could also go further South, to the Ardennes and the Alps.

Thomas A Clark has written in 1999 an enchanting text entitled The Mountains Of Holland. This text was the inspiration for the artist to make another work for this project on Kolham, after having seen the flat landscape of this site.

The work is an enamel sign with, in white, the text

The Mountains

Of Holland

Base Camp

The enamel sign is executed in a traditional Dutch model with four ears in the corners. This sign, attached to the wall of the cottage on Kolham, transforms this site to a base camp for an expedition to The Mountains Of Holland. But also every other place where this sign is installed will transform to a base camp for an imaginary or real journey.

The flag and enamel sign by Thomas A Clark is published in an edition of 20 copies exclusive for the members of The Flag Club. The flag and enamel sign are collected in an acid-free box, signed and numbered by the artist. The box also includes a DVD showing a movie of the flag flying on the location on Kolham and the original text The Mountains Of Holland by Thomas A Clark, printed letterpress in 1999.

The club will be limited to have only 20 members, who receive the edition and will be invited to join and celebrate the event of the flying of the flag this Summer in Kolham; drinks and food will be served.

The contribution for membership is € 350. The members of The Flag Club will receive the box with the works by Thomas A Clark and have priority to order the following editions: the members are supporting the continuity of this project, the club will invite once or twice a year an artist for a project on Kolham and to design a flag and a special edition.

Thomas A Clark

born in Greenock, Scotland, 1944.

With his wife Laurie, he runs Cairn Gallery since 1986, an important space for contemporary art, for many years situated in Nailsworth, the Cotswolds and since 2002 based in Pittenweem, a fishing harbour in Fife, Scotland. Cairn Gallery has shown the work of Alan Charlton, Trevor Sutton, Peter Liversidge, Hamish Fulton, Ian Whittlesea and many others.

Cairn Gallery was presented on the exhibition Life/Live, curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, in 1996.

Thomas A Clark and Laurie Clark are also running the Moschatel Press since 1973, publishing their own books and editions.

Thomas A Clark has made many site-specific installations and interventions in museums, galleries and in public space, recently on a large scale at New Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.

And Thomas A Clark and Laurie Clark had an exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, in 2007: A Bright Glade.

selection of publications by Thomas A Clark

A Still Life, The Jargon Society, North Carolina, 1977 / A Ruskin Sketchbook, Coracle, London, 1979 / The Tempers of Hazard, Paladin, London, 1993 / Tormentil and Bleached Bones, Polygon, Edinburgh, 1993 / That Which Appears, The Paragon Press, London, 1994 / Some Alternatives to The White Cube, Coracle, London, 1996 / One Hundred Scottish Places, October, Eindhoven, 1999 / Distance and Proximity, Pocketbooks, Edinburgh, 2000 / The Path to the Sea, Arc Publications, Todmorden, 2005 / Of Woods & Waters, Moschatel Press, Pittenweem, 2008 / The Hundred Thousand Places, Carcanet Press, Manchester, 2009

Edition

Acid-free box (31 x 25 x 5 cm)

including flag (150 x 225 cm), enamel sign (20 x 23 cm), DVD, a folded card in envelope and a colophon sheet.

Signed and numbered by the artist. Published in an edition of 20 copies.

price € 350

The box will be published in June 2011. When you order the box you are a member of The Flag Club and will be invited for the launch of the flag on Kolham in June.

for ordering the box with the edition by Thomas A Clark please contact

Peter Foolen Editions

Nijenrode 107

NL – 5653 JD Eindhoven

tel +31 (0)40 2524266 / mobile +31 (0)6 41117931

peterfoolen@online.nl

www.peterfoolen.blogspot.com