6,000 have a hand in Diana artwork
by John Crace
Shortly after Diana, Princess of Wales, died on August 31 1997, the
first flowers were laid outside the gates of her Kensington Palace home;
by the time of her funeral seven days later, the site had grown into a
field of colour.
And in a week that encompassed everything from profound grief to
mawkish sentimentality, it was this image that has endured as the
public's most heartfelt response to a young woman's death.
Almost ten years on, over the course of this summer, visitors to
Kensington Palace might have detected echoes of this, as every week
since July 1, a new giant 10ft dandelion, made up of 630 gold-leafed
flowers, has appeared in the palace gardens.
The tenth, and last, goes up on Friday, the anniversary of Diana's
death. The dandelions are the latest installation from artist Sofie
Layton and, by the time the last one goes up, it will have involved the
collaboration of more than 6,000 members of the public. Some might
describe Layton as a community artist, but she hates the term,
preferring to use the word participative.
You can see where she's coming from. Community art is often used as a
label for something a bit second-rate ; knocked up on the cheap. But
Layton's work has been acclaimed across Britain and the dandelions are
just the latest in a series of commissions from the royal palaces.
"I wanted to find an image that would work both symbolically and
practically," she says. "In folklore, seed clocks are seen as a way of
blowing thoughts to loved ones, so dandelions seemed a perfect image for
articulating a feeling of grief. They also offered a way in for
participation from the public, because the construction allowed people
to get involved in the gold-leafing of the flower heads."
There is still time for those who want to get involved to do so, as
the last dandelion is not yet finished. Just turn up (early) at
Kensington Palace.
And what is going to happen to the dandelions after ? "I've no idea,"
says Layton. "But then I've always been attracted to the idea of
transience in art.
It goes back to when my first sculpture rolled off a 1ft plinth and
smashed."
The Guardian ,UK |
