An exhibition by artist collective Finishing School
On view January 20 – April 19, 2025
In a time of growing uncertainty and socio-political tension, White Flags invokes the psychological challenges we face. The installation presents white flags with text cited from military tactical manuals, originally intended to guide soldiers in survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. These tactics, now removed from their military context, take on new meanings. Each flag becomes a point of reflection, prompting viewers to consider how they respond to the pressures and conflicts of the world around them. As viewers move through the space, the flags, arranged with propagandistic precision, evoke institutional authority and order. Yet, the text they bear introduces conflict. The white flag, a symbol of surrender, is reimagined as a site for exploring how we surrender or resist in the face of power. The content challenges each person to interpret these directives through their own experiences, revealing their own tension between personal survival and societal expectations. Ultimately, White Flags serves as a mirror, reflecting the choices we face between submission and resistance. It invites us to question our standing within systems of power and control. White Flags was developed by Finishing School at Stanislaus State’s University Art Gallery with curator Dean DeCocker.
Closing Reception
Join us at the Gallery on Saturday, April 19, from 3 to 6 p.m.
About the Artist Collective
Finishing School is a collective comprised of artist-educators that playfully explore an expansive range of subject and media territories that respond to the current socio-political moment at the intersections of art, politics, praxis, and the everyday. The collective has five members, Nadia Afghani, Matt Fisher, Ed Giardina, Jason Plapp, and Jean Robison, who represent a broad range of skills and research interests. Finishing School produces socially-driven interdisciplinary actions, installations, workshops, design, publications, film, studio art, performance and new media.
They have presented work throughout the United States and internationally in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Israel, Thailand, England, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, and Italy. US institutions include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, New York University, Creative Time, Dedalus Foundation, Queens Museum, Baltimore Contemporary Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit.
Finishing School has participated in many residencies, biennials, and festivals, including Bienal de Cuenca in Cuenca, Ecuador; The Wanlass Artist in Residence Program at Occidental College in Los Angeles; Side Street Projects in Pasadena, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Nimoy Foundation Artist in Residence for the 2010 California Biennial at OCMA; Engagement Party: a three-month residency program at MOCA; DFLUX in Detroit, MI; De Zone Stichting Nutuur in Arnhem, The Netherlands; Angeles Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, CA; and Nimoy Foundation Artist in Residence at Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute.
Their work has also been noted in many books, journals, magazines, and newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, Artforum, Art Papers, Art News, Art in America, Coagula, Metropolis, Living as Form (MIT Press), KCET, and Boom (Journal, University of California Press).