Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Ceramic art installation at Tower of London, England
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a ceramic art installation at the Tower of London. The work spread through the fortress moat and consisted of more than 888,000 handmade red poppy flowers.
Paul Cummins and Tom Piper conceived the installation for 2014, when the start of World War I reached its hundredth anniversary. Each poppy stood for a British soldier who died during the war.
The poppies recall the red field poppies that grew on the battlefields of Flanders after World War I and became a symbol for remembering the fallen. Visitors could purchase individual ceramic flowers, with proceeds going to six military charities.
The installation remained visible from July through November 2014 and grew daily as volunteers planted new flowers in the moat. Visitors could view the work from the tower wharf and the public paths around the fortress.
Two sections of the installation, called Wave and Weeping Window, traveled across the United Kingdom after 2014 and reached over 4.6 million visitors by 2018. The ceramic flowers were made individually by craftspeople in Derbyshire.
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