Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas)
Video, 2017
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About the artwork
Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas), 2017 depicts the site of the 'Lucas Gusher', the world's first major oil find, in Spindletop, Texas in 1901, now barren and exhausted. The site is recreated as a digital simulation and placed at its centre a flagpole bearing a flag of perpetually-renewing pressurised black smoke, which the artist describes as a monument to the carbon legacy of the twentieth century. Originally commissioned by Channel 4 for broadcast on Earth Day, 22 April 2017. Subsequently presented at Desert X (Palm Springs), 2019, and by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary outside the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP25, 2019. The work is held in the permanent collections of the Pinault Collection, TBA21 Thyssen Bornemisza Art of the 21st Century., and in LACMA as a tokenised 30-second looping video extract. The work has circulated globally as a recurring image in climate discourse since its release and is considered one of the most important and impactful works of computer-generated live art of the early twenty-first century.
The work is a continuous simulation made using real-time computer graphics software. Every frame is generated live at approximately 50 frames per second, no two moments repeating. The simulation is locked to the computer's clock: the sun rises and sets at the exact times it would at Spindletop, Texas. Day lengths shifting across a full 365-day cycle.
The collector downloads and runs the software on a local PC, accompanied by a paper certificate of authenticity or an Ethereum blockchain token serving as on-chain proof of ownership.
Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programmer: Helmut Bressler
Modelers: Max Loegler, Philipp Marcks
Game Engine: Unigine
Exhibition design by Jakob Illera/Inseq.
Commissioned by Channel 4 for broadcast April 22nd, Earth Day 2017.
john gerrard is a pivotal figure in the development of simulation within contemporary art. The artist’s works are real-time digital simulations built with game-engine technology, occupying an uncanny territory between documentary precision and technological mediation. Neither film nor video, the works are autonomous virtual worlds that unfold according to their own internal logic, some synchronised to actual solar and atmospheric conditions, others driven by algorithmic choreography, others reconstructing historical moments within contemporary landscapes.
For more than two decades, gerrard's practice has examined the hidden architectures of contemporary power: the industrial structures, energy networks, and algorithmic systems that underpin modern existence yet remain largely invisible to those who depend on them. From the factory farms of Oklahoma to the data centres of middle America, from the solar thermal plants of the Nevada desert to the oil fields of Spindletop, Texas, gerrard renders visible the material substrates of a networked world.
Work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and other major institutions. Multiple works are held in LACMA's permanent collection including washington.stream, Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada), and World Flag. gerrard was recipient of the Art + Technology Lab Grant at LACMA in 2017, producing Neural Exchange, an early exploration of art, performance and AI neural networks.
Major presentations include Channel 4's Earth Day broadcast, 2017; Somerset House, London, 2017; Desert X (Palm Springs), 2019; the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, at COP25, 2019; Okayama Art Summit, Japan, curated by Pierre Huyghe; Dark Mofo, Tasmania, 2023; the Hayward Gallery, London, 2023; U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, 2023; and the Folkestone Triennial, 2025. A current commission, SPIRITS, unfolds across LACMA from December 2025 through December 2026.