Memorial to the Unnamed

For the Homotopia Festival I have planted 2000 pansies in St John’s Gardens. Historically the park is a site for what is widely believed to be a homophobically motivated murder. This temporary installation’s title; ‘Memorial to the Unnamed’ releases the work from specificities, freeing it to act as a symbolic memorial for all who have experienced homophobically motivated hate crime.

The installation’s title also has military connotations which reflect the significance of the park as a site of impressive permanent monuments: public memorials to the heroism of those lost in battle. In this context the pansy’s transient and subtle intervention into this domain explores the disparity between the cultural memorialisation of those lost fighting for their country and the official invisibility of queer citizens killed on the streets of Liverpool and beyond. ‘Memorial to the Unnamed’ aims to instigate debate surrounding the nature of heteronormativity.

(photo above Maureen Ward)