Artist flags up community spirit in Portsmouth
An artist planted miniature paper flags in Portsmouth as a temporary public artwork to mark the launch of Discovering Places last weekend.
Jon Adams, artist in residence at the University of Portsmouth, had won backing from the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics to be part of the event.
The flags, made from the pages of books which are no longer needed glued to bamboo skewers, were planted en masse last Friday.
Jon said: "The aim of this public art project was to get people joining in to help create a unique work of art. The pages from books used to make the flags can be important to the person making their flags or simply come from a book that is no longer wanted, and people could plant them in their gardens, on fields or beaches, or anywhere they like.
"We wanted tens of thousands of people to be part of the unique countrywide artwork by making the largest or the smallest or the most unusually placed field of flags."
Those taking part and those who stumbled across fields of flags were asked to send in photographs to the group's website or Facebook page. The best and most unusual 'plantings' will feature on BBC Big Screens in September and October.
Jon said: "This project is bound up inseparably with my dyslexia, the love of hidden meaning and the act of reading the landscape we live in, which is something we can do without needing the written word.
"I really hope it inspired all communities, young and old, to engage and try something new."
The project was part of the Creative Campus Initiative and is called Dysarticulate. It is supported by London 2012 'Open Weekend', Discovering Places, Artpoint Trust, Audiences South, Dada South, Creative Campus Initiatives, Whitstable Biennale and Kent Cultural Baton.
To find out more visit the website at: http://www.port.ac.uk/special/creativecampusinitiative/projects/orderthings17/dysarticulate/.
