FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 29, 2014
GUELPH, Ontario --New
Zealand artist Stephen Mulqueen uses discarded cartridge shells from
the First and Second World Wars to construct brass poppies, transforming
the refuse of war into symbolic and wearable
objects.
He is set to speak at the Guelph Civic Museum Friday, September 5th
at 2pm, about the significance of his poppies in a talk entitled, Poppies of War and Peace.
The brass poppies were inspired
by Mulqueen’s travels to war sites in France, Belgium, and Germany
in 2001.
“I visited the Flanders Field Museum in Ypres and Tyne Cot Cemetery for
the first time and found
this very moving,” says Mulqueen. “Upon return to New Zealand in 2002,
the impact of this journey began to infiltrate my workshop practice.”
His
goal in creating the poppies was to commemorate the World Wars, and to
provoke reflection on “the causes and consequences of war.”
“I believe that
we can engage memory by making things which offer a very tangible link
to our own relationships with the past, with each other, and with the
possibilities for the future,” says Mulqueen.
He describes the brass poppy as “a residue of war where ‘beauty meets terror.’”
Guelph is the first stop on Mulqueen’s North American tour, which is supported by a Fullbright and New Zealand Arts grant.
For more information, please contact Robin Morden, Community Relations Coordinator, 519-836-1221, robin.morden@guelph.ca
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