Red · White · Black
Two flags, one mirror
Varga repaints symbols Germans think they know — until they ask questions back.
One work is a red flag with frayed edges bearing a large black peace symbol in a white circle. In the studio, Varga uses it as a perception experiment: German visitors tend to see a swastika first, while visitors from most other countries see the peace sign first. The painting is about how we judge through our own mind.
Elsewhere he paints the Kenyan flag twice. Once faithful — black, red and green bands, the Maasai shield and crossed spears, rendered exactly. Once argumentative — the shield become a dark organic form with skeletal hands, cigarettes for spears, a tusk, a palm, playing cards. The researchers said this second flag demands justice: participatory diversity painted as argument.
A restricted palette turned against itself — symbols repainted until they ask questions back.
That is the method of the whole Red · White · Black series: take the colours and signs a viewer thinks they own, and hand them back changed. The point is never the flag. The point is the second look.