Ilkley-based sculptor Anna Whitehouse has overseen this installation of Himalayan Blue Poppies tumbling down a hillside, at the Himalayan Garden. Its creation was impacted by the Covid pandemic but, when people were allowed once again to gather together, over 1300 ceramic poppies were handmade in workshops in schools, colleges and community groups, then glazed, fired and assembled into this riverlike cascade. The artist comments that 'it is a symbol of re-emergence and the power of community'. The makers were able to relax and socialise whilst engaged in a soothing and tactile creative activity. Each poppy has been personalised by its maker, with messages of freedom and the names of family, friends and, in some cases, those they lost to the Covid virus.
Tucked away in the garden were some real Himalayan Blue Poppies (Meconopsis) too. Rare in the UK and apparently difficult to grow, they need moist conditions to flourish and have a short flowering season. They are unusual and rather pretty, with a slight pink flush to their blue petals.
I was thinking that I prefer real flowers when it occurred to me that you could do something like that in a large garden - a "river" of maybe ground-cover plants, perhaps with some little bridges across it.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen blue poppies. The installation is amazing and so good to have each poppy created by different people and with a message.
ReplyDeleteWonderful and surprising to see ceramic poppies in that river! So many people made them, and I see it continues further up the slope. Love the fragile real poppies!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a blur poppy. They are gorgeous. Love the 'river' of ceramic ones.
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