In her new exhibition at wildpalms, Rachel Libeskind presents two major works that examine how images shape our perception of history and identity: What is a Flag? and In The Beginning and the End.
Across both works, the artist continues her investigation into the circulation of symbols and the construction of collective memory through the language of collage.
In In The Beginning and the End (2024), Libeskind constructs a rhythmic video collage from commercial images of the Twin Towers, spanning their opening in 1973 to their fall in 2001. Advertisements and promotional footage — once emblems of modern progress — reappear like visual alliterations, forming a hypnotic rhythm between memory and loss. Through this visual cadence, Libeskind connects the emotions of her own biography with the collective experience of a nation shifting from optimism and internationalism toward an age of war and fear. For the artist, who grew up in post-9/11 New York, the absence of the towers became a constant presence. By repeating their image, she transforms the architectural icon into a devotional motif, echoing how collective trauma turns symbols into relics.
Her new series What is a Flag? (2025) marks a decisive evolution in Libeskind’s use of collage. While the principle of assemblage remains, the act of layering has been translated into the creation of clear, precisely defined surfaces. Inspired by a 1934 German publication of so-called “non-European” flags, these works are executed in silkscreen pigment on stretched canvas, reducing the flag to its most elemental form — skeletal outlines and contours that retain their historical charge yet appear newly abstracted.
In the expansive main room of wildpalms, the works are arranged in carefully curated constellations. Together, the two bodies of work trace the transformation of collage — from the juxtaposition of images in time to the construction of surfaces in space — revealing Libeskind’s continued commitment to reassembling the fragments of history into new visual grammars. (Quelle: wildpalms)
