The Pansy Project

One of the enjoyable parts of the recent London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival was seeing the pansies that had been planted around the Southbank and the striking images used in the festival programmes and publicity.
These were part of the Pansy Project - which at the Southbank comprised of an installation of 3000 pansies lining the Southbank, a special event hosted at Southbank Centre and 1000 pansies handed out to passers by as part of the installation dedicated to David Morley. The Pansy Project http://www.thepansyproject.com/ is the work of artist Paul Harfleet who revisits locations planting pansies as close as possible to where homophobic abuse has been experienced. These self-seeding pansies act as a living memorial to this abuse and operate as an antidote to it; some pansies wither whilst others thrive in car park borders and windswept road verges. Each pansy's location is named after the abuse received.
For me the plantings at the Southbank extended the reach of the festivals celebration of gay and lesbian cultures and lives into the surrounding geography - taking over and placing their own mark on the architecture and public spaces surrounding the NFT.