One Way

Iván Argote's One Way is a video documentation of Argote's sculptural installation, which was on view at "Vista" at the Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, in 2011. A flag displaying a single white one-way arrow against a black background is pulled up a flagpole, altering its direction randomly as determined by the shifting wind. Birds sometimes cross the screen. New York City traffic, the screams of sea gulls and children playing can be heard in the background.

Flags and the colours, crests or logos they bear are usually employed as symbols of singular ideas, movements, or beliefs. Argote's flag, however seems to denounce any form of dogmatism. The artist creates an oxymoron between the one-way symbol of the flag and the volatile change of direction that it claims, brought about by the wind. The sounds further obscure the film and elevate the notion of the unbound by alluding to a world that might visually be omitted from the footage, but which evokes figurative images of an indistinct neighbourhood, landscape and people.

Socrates Sculpture Park, originally an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite, was transformed in 1986 into an internationally renowned outdoor museum and artist residency program that is also a New York City public park.

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