Tyler Starr
Davidson, NC
www.tylerstarr.com
Flags, Placards, and Illicit
Climbers of the Capitol
Insurrection (January 6, 2021)
2022
Pigment prints on Moab Entrada Rag Bright 190 gm coated with Moab Desert Spray. Archival painting of page edges. Custom hardcover case binding with rounded spine, foil stamping on front, back, spine, and interior. Custom clamshell with tunnel component and foil stamping on front, back and spine.
9″ x 11.5″ x 1.25″; 72 pages
Artist Statement
Flags, Placards, and Illicit Climbers is a 72-page artist’s book based on hours of January 6th footage scoured for images of rioters scaling walls to flank security on the Capitol Grounds. Context is provided with a thorough survey of the flags and placards carried by participants shedding light on their affiliations, motivations, and ideologies, including those aligned with far-right extremist movements and individuals with conspiratorial views of the election. Examples extracted from the flood of imagery offer insights into the violent insurgency including sign-making aesthetics, physical gestures, and fashion preferences.
The book design is influenced by brochures found at historical sites, presenting accessible nuggets of complex information distilled from primary documentation, inviting viewers to discover and investigate for themselves. A critical contribution to this project comes from the open-source intelligence community who organized extensive amounts of January 6th footage on websites to assist the FBI with crowdsourcing the identification of perpetrators. This project acknowledges the important archiving work of citizen volunteers.