Flagpole Project: Artport Kingston
Kingston, NY
June 29–July 27, 2025
Select images from the Flagpole Project @ ArtPort Kingston.
Waste Not Want Not Waterway at ArtPort Kingston
ArtPort Kingston has invited artists, designers, makers, and thinkers to submit flag designs for our new Flagpole Project. Launched in Spring 2025, the Project has been raising one original artist-made flag per month above ArtYard Kingston at 80 Smith Ave throughout 2025. Each new flag, raised in a communal ceremony, offers an opportunity to rethink the meaning and role of flags in contemporary society.
In Waste Not Want Not Waterway, Niki Lederer continues her commitment to material reuse, transforming discarded umbrella canopies into vibrant sculptural flags. Suspended and rippling with motion, the work conjures the language of maritime signals, flowing currents, and environmental urgency. The patchwork of synthetic materials—stitched together with nylon thread and webbing—evokes both the fragility and resilience of waterways under strain.
The title serves as both a cautionary maxim and a poetic provocation. By reimagining waste as raw material, Lederer not only critiques consumer culture but also offers a model for adaptive creativity. The grommeted construction references industrial functionality while celebrating handmade craft. Echoing the colorful chaos of urban detritus and the organic rhythm of tides, Waste Not Want Not Waterway becomes a call to both care and repair—a flag for the future.
The soundtrack for Waste Not Want Not Waterway, 2025, is a sequence of water-cycle recordings echoing the reuse cycle from discarded umbrellas to a flag. The water medley begins with thunder and rain falling onto umbrella tops, then moves to river currents and ocean waves, acknowledging that rainfall collects into these bodies of water. Eventually, the water evaporates into the air, forming clouds to begin the cycle all over again.
Artwork in the exhibition:
Waste Not Want Not Waterway
2025
Umbrella canopies, nylon thread, nylon webbing, plastic grommets
38 × 68 inches