15′

2016/17

This work alternates between close-ups of unfolding poppies and views across poppy fields. At intervals, b/w sequences show children at play, while the sound changes. The recordings of playing children switch from the 1930s to present-day, but being in b/w, these shifts are almost imperceptible. With the end of World War I, the poppy became the symbol of the blood spilled in Flanders; the poppies coloured the upturned earth red. Since then, the poppy has been a symbol of peace, and in Great Britain, each autumn, people commemorate the fallen by wearing a poppy on their coats. The poppy is both frugal and hardy, and yet it is so delicate you can barely pick one before its petals fall off. The children remind us that mankind always begins as a playing child, curious about this earth. This reminds us how important it is to look after the world’s playing children.