Lest we forget: KPU instructor and student create on-campus poppy display to honour veterans
The Remembrance Day-focused art installation, “Garden of Poppies,” was made up of over 200 ceramic flowers
Poppies from the installation are available for people to take home until Nov. 18 by donating to the Royal Canadian Legion. (Submitted)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University fine arts instructor Ying-Yueh Chuang and student Claudia Shen created more than 200 ceramic poppies displayed in the Surrey campus courtyard to honour veterans for Remembrance Day.
The inspiration for the art installation began with a call from the “Remembrance Every Day” exhibition at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ont. for artists to bring their communities together and teach them how to make poppies.
The pair’s collaboration started during the initial planning stages of the installation. When Chuang first saw submissions were open for the exhibit, she reached out and invited Shen to team up on the project.
Chuang says she thought a collaboration between her and Shen would be a meaningful way to raise awareness of conflicts around the world.
“She has her strengths, and I have my strengths,” Chuang says. “We all have our weaknesses, but at the same time, we were able to compensate for each other and work out the time, the skill set, and gather different ideas. So it has been quite a nice thing [working together].”
Along with Chuang’s and Shen’s collaborative effort, KPU students and members of the Fraser Valley Potters Guild lent a helping hand in creating poppies and attending workshops.
Senior residents in the community were also involved in making the poppies and attending workshops. After two workshops, the community made 80 to 85 poppies, with the goal of reaching 150 to 200.
But then an extra push from community members helped create well over 200 poppies for the installation.
“It’s about the community. It’s about how you can get people together and create things that are memorable,” Chuang says. “For the [seniors], they really enjoyed … making something together that’s very meaningful.”
On Nov. 4, the main setup of the poppy display was completed and ready for visitors and students to view in the Surrey campus courtyard until Remembrance Day.
The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery named the art installation “Garden of Poppies.”
Chuang says she hopes students and visitors have reflected on the importance of peace while they visited the installation.
“It can be the peace inside yourself, for yourself. It can be peace in the family, with family members, peace [within] the country, or with your neighbour. Everybody’s experience is different and everybody’s going to have different ways of thinking about what [peace] can be,” she says. “Hopefully, everybody can have peace of mind.”
Chuang says her work on the display will not have been complete until someone brings a poppy into their life, as that will carry forward the installation’s message of remembrance and peace.
Until Nov. 18, people are encouraged to home a ceramic poppy from the display and, in exchange, make a donation to the Royal Canadian Legion. The display will be slowly dismantled as people donate and take home poppies.
Chuang says she hopes the installation will continue to inspire continued storytelling and reflection.
“[The installation is] basically to ask people to rethink about what we have done so far throughout the world, and what we want to contribute to the world.”
To donate to the Legion, visit www.legion.ca/donations.
