His work has received the backing of world-class entertainment production teams; supported by countless international events and festivals; and endorsed by The British Council, The Goethe Institute, the French Embassy and Barefoot Gallery. But to see the work itself, is to believe that an Angus Watt installation is in fact ‘Working with the elements’.

Last seen in the UK at this year’s WOMAD festival, Watt installed over 500 flags on the Charlton Park site, where he has returned to each year since 1994. ‘Their world-class production values and emphasis on quality on a big scale has really allowed the flags to come into their own’ says Watt ‘WOMAD have been a great patron of the arts over the years and their advocacy of cultural difference continues to be inspiring’.

Working in conjunction with the St Ives International organisation and local councils, Watts is set to exhibit flags that echo his ‘roaming program’ commissioned by the Cornish Tate Gallery to celebrate the solar eclipse in 1999. The new flags will be designed to work with the exceptional winds coming off the Atlantic, appearing at three locations over three weeks in West Penwith. The flags will then grab their passports and jet off to New Zealand as part of the Wellington Arts Festival, again roaming three locations.

The flags themselves are created by using solar energy, bio-energy and entirely organic materials. Watts plans to work with engineers and a new resin based formula, which can be used to coat the flags and collect energy from the sun – working like decorative PV Cells.

Since working at the Eden Project every year since its build stage in 2000, Watts was commissioned to inaugurate the opening of the Melbourne Museum. The exhibition was received with particular critical acclaim and Watt’s contribution has secured annual returns to Australia where a variety of his installations remain in circulation and mark Watt’s proud stewardship of solar sourcing and conceptual eco-innovation. ‘The concept was to use mapping to illustrate how the landscape around Melbourne has been changed by settler’s development since the 17th century’ says Watt

‘The first sets of flags were grey, dreary and very linear – showing the streets of Melbourne as it is presently’ Watt continues ‘These flags were then replaced over three weeks, replacing these industrial looking flags with an ochre palette, and organic 7 natural forms, revealing the landscape of the original Koori people, and their areas of cultural significance that have been so bewilderingly transformed by urban development.’

Whether the flags are a vast decoration of what an eco-friendly production can inspire or if they are emblems for the potential capabilities of solar power, PV Cells and their re-design – it may be too soon to tell. What can be discerned from every Watt application of creative ecological manufacturing is that the installations themselves produce a sense of potentiality, that being the purpose of most art, to transform the way we imagine. And perhaps thanks to Watt’s imagination, renewable energy devices may become objects to be admired.

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