For-Site and the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture presents Andy Goldsworthy: Red Flags. The site-specific exhibition centers on the acclaimed artist’s monumental installation, Red Flags (2020). Comprised of fifty 5- by 8-foot flags, each flag is stained red with earth collected from each of the 50 U.S. states. Internationally recognized for his sculptures, installations, photos and films, Goldsworthy’s practice emphasizes process via nature’s way — transformation through exposure, erosion, sunlight, and time.
Shades of red
The impetus for the series has its origins in New York’s Rockefeller Center. In late 2019, Goldsworthy visited the center and noticed that the usual flags representing the United Nations member nations had been replaced by U.S. state flags. As an environmental and land artist, Goldsworthy was familiar with using red earth in his practice. He has worked with this elemental substance for decades, evoking both our connection with the land and the connection between places from Scotland to the South Australian Outback. Goldsworthy has described red earth as “the earth’s veins.”
Fifty states
The finished work was originally exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in 2020, and later appeared in the artist’s 2025 retrospective Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years, at the National Galleries of Scotland. Red Flags, rather than displaying emblems that differentiate each state, invites us to consider what unifies the United States. The cotton is stained with different variations of red based on the variances of iron content in the earth, from pale ochre to deep sienna. These colors and textures speak toward a deeper sense of identity beyond membership of a country and state. We suddenly consider our place in the world in a fresh light: which colors of red live under our feet, what history does that soil contain, and what messages might that knowledge hold for us all?
The flags’ presentation at Fort Mason, which opened July 1, coincides with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, reflecting on geographic and political boundaries, and on the ties between people, land, and nation. The Gateway Pavilion’s main gallery will present a focused selection of Goldsworthy’s red earth art as a through line in his practice.
This exhibition builds on For-Site’s enduring collaboration with Goldsworthy. Some of his major projects, Spire (2008), where hikers can witness a 100-foot collection of cypress tree trunks fastened together, and Wood Line (2011), a 1,200-foot sculpture made from zig-zagging Eucalyptus branches trailing through the Presidio, have become integral to the Bay Area’s cultural landscape.
A film originating from Red Flags will be screened in the Gray Box, an indoor screening and installation venue inside the pavilion.
Andy Goldsworthy helps us remember that we are nature, and that nature isn’t something separate from us. His art tells a story that reminds us that if we lose our connection to nature, we lose connection to ourselves and each other. “I hope the flags will be received in the same spirit with which all the red earths were collected,” says the artist, “as a gesture of solidarity and support.”
Andy Goldsworthy: Red Flags is on display through July 30 in the Gateway Pavilion at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. A public opening reception is planned for Friday, July 10, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
