Lest we forget

For me the eleventh of November has always meant a minutes silence on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  I think my most moving experience a couple of years ago  was outside Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, when in the heart of a busy city  the traffic stopped,  the people stopped, silence fell,  a soldier played the Last Post, then there was total stillness for a minute, Reveille was played and life went on as usual. But, people just for a moment people had remembered lost lives, lives changed and a world changed.  I always remember from the first World War  my grandfathers and great uncles, my husband's grandfather and great uncles.  We were very lucky, they came back, but two carried injuries all their lives.

So today  its  time  to reflect  on the Poppies for Peace project - the poppies created for Harmony Square in Dandenong for Anzac Day now watch over the grassed lawn in Harmony Square.  

(apologies, reflection makes  a good photograph difficult)

Just to get the context - above is now where they look down, below is last Anzac Day.  The message has not  changed.

I think this photo says it all.  One of my favorites is this one below , taken just seconds after the poppies were planted in the lawn last April.

Just to give you an idea of scale here are some photos of creating the last installation. 

Backview of the poppies as Margaret works on attaching them to runners on the ceiling so that we can roll them along into the gallery space

Looking back from my end of the gallery to the top of the ladder where the poppies were launched from

Looking back down from the ladder to my end of the gallery and Harmony Square in the background - and yes it was a narrow vertigo scary  type of space - but it was perfectly safe and  far too exciting to think of anything but how the poppies were going to look. 

 We are very proud of what we've achieved with this project.  It became quite an emotional experience and gave us insight into an amazing community.  It has travelled to five  venues and had  real meaning for so many.  We worked with many wonderful people  throughout  the City of Greater Dandenong and without the Arts & Culture Department at the council none of this would have been possible.  Thanks, Guys you've been fantastic to work with.

After a some  time and perspective, and a great deal of editing,  I will put a separate page telling  the whole poppy story  on the home page of the blog - meanwhile if you're curious there are rather a lot of old blog posts.