The Black Flags of Croft

This artwork Featured in Time Will Tell (2013). A Meadow Arts Commission.

The Black Flags of Croft is a mirror to the performance Nathaniel carried out in 2010 as a part of the Meadow Arts exhibition Tell it to the Trees at Croft Castle in Herefordshire. Dressed in modern-day apparel, that simulated 18th century costume, he towed three model galleons attached to three skateboards (all wooden and made in China), pulling them silently around Croft. The work referenced Gulliver’s Travels and the satire of Jonathan Swift, and alluded to the history of deforestation for making war ships and the current use of wood in global consumerism, and it was inspired by Croft’s Spanish chestnuts, believed to have been planted with seeds from a shipwrecked Spanish Armada boat over 400 years ago.

The performance on Saturday 8th September is a response to the current ‘Time Will Tell’ programme, looking at myths, legacies and personal histories of the inhabitants at Croft. Once again Nathaniel performs a series of silent walks: this time he pushes a giant flagpole and hoists a series of giant flags, each referencing different members of the Croft family throughout the history of the castle. The performance also nods toward the third journey of Gulliver, who was shipwrecked and washed up in the land of Brobdingnag, a land of giants.

Nathaniel’s walk takes him from the Castle and church up to the lightening tree in the top field, across the car park and down to the fishponds, returning to the castle and on across the fields to the Chestnut rows before returning again to change the flag.

Flag 1: The Black Dragon

In the 15th century John Croft married Janet, one of Owain Glyndŵr’s daughters. Owain was a Welsh ruler who led a revolt against English rule. The Croft family then adopted the Welsh Wyvern crest, a wounded black dragon, seen as a subtle allusion to their Glyndŵr heritage.

Flag 2: The Black Veil

Inspired by the burial march, Musica Sacra, written and composed by William Croft in 1724, which is used at all state funerals. Also inspired by the suicide of Sir Richard Croft, on 13 February 1818, age 56.

Flag 3: Black Operations

Inspired by Love and Madness, the novel written by Sir Herbert Croft in 1780, which narrates the passion of the soldier-turned-clergyman. Other associations are Sir James Herbert Croft who served with No 1 Commando in the Second World War, and Colonel Andrew Croft who was an explorer and member of the Special Operations Executive.

 

About the artist

Nathaniel Pitt

Nathaniel Pitt exhibited in Time Will Tell, Croft Castle, 2013, commissioned by Meadow Arts.

Image: Nathaniel Pitt, Black Flag, performance, installation view, Time Will Tell, Croft Castle, 2013. Image courtesy Meadow Arts.