Linda Studena: Head of State

These recurring emblems serve as symbols for contemplating the notion of identity and the nation-state. The common cabbage transforms into an unlikely protagonist of an imaginary state, evoking both a call to arms and referencing the politics of food and agriculture.

The utilitarian banners are steeped in the colour palette from regions and cities of artist Linda Studena's home country Czechia and draw on methods of propaganda and heraldic tradition. Studena is interested in how the cabbage disrupts ideas of national identity to form new connections to ideas of citizenship and political agency. The repetition of the flags combined with the historical legacy of bronze monuments, converge into official iconography, referencing both failed utopias past and present, and perhaps simply a celebration of gardening, fertility and the common cabbage.