New York, NY - What is a national flag? Does it express our cultural identity, or simply limit it? Graphic artist Jeremy Hutchison engages the question of how we visually represent ourselves with we are multicolored, an interactive project for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s Digital Artist in Residence Program.

we are multicolored invites people to explore national identity in a playful way, dismantling national flags and reassembling them into a personal flag. Hutchison believes flags are as complicated as they are beautiful, powerful symbols to deconstruct. “Highly complex ideologies, histories and national identities are embedded in the rigid shapes, forms, and colors of a nation’s flag,” he said. “This project should prompt people to ask important questions about the array of cultures to which they belong, hopefully provoking recognition that we are all products of hybrid cultural identities.”

Personal flags are added to a “superflag,” a constantly shifting collection of shapes and colors made of all the flags created through the site. Each time the superflag is viewed, it will take a new form, reshuffling the arrangement of visual material across the screen. Users can click on any single flag to learn about the individual it represents. Visitors to the site can also learn about the meanings of colors and symbols on various national flags, offering an insight into societies around the world. Says Hutchison, “Once we realize that red means something different in China, Chile, and Chad, it becomes fairly clear that we can't assume anything about other people. We just have to be curious, and stay open.”

Hutchison, along with Nellie Perera, arts and education program manager at Henry Street Settlement, have been running a series of workshops centered around we are multicolored, encouraging students to ask questions about what colors and shapes mean in different nations and how national identity is created. The workshops, held in the Lower East Side, aim to create a forum for young people to explore their own cultural heritage and to increase their awareness of the rich immigrant history in their neighborhood. The workshops also encourage students to express ideas through new media and to understand the creative potential of technology. Visit : www.wearemulticolored.com

Jeremy Hutchison is a UK artist who has been living in New York since 2003. Working across multiple disciplines, his work centers around the paradoxes of the contemporary experience. He collaborated with programmer Matthew Brown and Pentagram designer Joe Marianek in the creation of this latest work.

The Tenement Museum's Digital Artist in Residence Program was made possible through the generous support of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the Verizon Foundation.

About the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
The heart of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is its landmark tenement building, home to nearly 7,000 immigrants from more than 20 nations between 1863 and 1935. The Tenement Museum's mission is to promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America. Anchored in a neighborhood that has long been home to thousands of poor and working class people, the Tenement Museum is dedicated to using the history of its site as a tool for addressing issues that are still pressing today, including immigration, urban housing and public welfare. In 2007 the Tenement Museum was awarded a prestigious challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation in support of the Museum’s Orchard Street Campaign. This $15 million capacity building campaign will build a strong foundation for the Museum’s future growth. The Tenement Museum is National Trust Historic Site, an affiliated area of the National Park Service and National Parks of New York Harbor, and an accredited institution of the American Association of Museums. Visit : www.tenement.org/