What if we think of the Mississippi River as a territory, with laws, with politics, with people, and with a history? Forget the "what if;" the Mississippi has all of those elements. It is a development company, an efficiency factory, and a radical political force. If we are to think of the river as a nation, it would surely need a flag. The US Corp of Engineers studied the territory touched, created, and altered by the river in their 1944 Fisk Report, drawing gorgeous maps that seem to encapsulate Twain, the Ojibwe, and the character of all who've encountered the river. Using the Fisk Report as a guide, perhaps the power of the Mississippi can be the true flag.

Commissioned for Work's Progress's project Mississippi Megalops as a part of Northern Spark festival in MN.