THE WEEPING WINDOW
The Blade is no more. The Maritime Museum is now home to a more poignant and restful work of art at the old dock offices. Victoria Gardens has been invaded by a cascade of "....several hundreds of handmade ceramic poppies seen pouring from a high window onto the ground below". Standing on black stems at different heights, they can take on a dark gloomy sheen or look like little heads waving in the wind depending on your viewpoint. I was taken by the flower heads glistening in the sunshine as my Grandad Freddie had told me of his days in the merchant service, and I lost a great grandad during the first year of World War One. I wondered what memories the waving flower heads might bring to Hull residents as my daughter Chloe and I basked in the sunshine and sat in Neros sipping a hot chocolate as the sun set on this sculpture by Artist Paul Cummings and designed by Tom Piper. With Mother's Day 3 days away I was happy to meet a mum, Yvonne Lagenby from North Hull out celebrating her 67th birthday with her daughter Michelle."We are Hull" Yvonne told me. We thought the projections were brilliant the Deep and all around Humber Street. We were worried the character of the old fruit market would get taken away but it is still there. This is just Lovely". Hull Weeping Window draws deeper memories out of some. I spoke to a couple Kennith and Jone have been together for 59 years. The Malvinas have always called West Hull home. Kennith told me that "Poppies. Ring something essential to the younger generation. The trawlers were taken on by the Government enabling goods to get to many ports of the world". Kennith sees life in the. Poppies not just death. He spoke about trawler men from the Hessle Road and his own father had been killed on a trawler but he couldn't remember how old he had been. It wasn't just the soldiers who signed up East Yorkshire Regiment at the nearby city hall impacted by the Great Wars. There were Zeppelin deaths in the surrounding area and families were broken often raised by strangers in the countryside. Joan spent Three years away from her parents, the Andersons. Joan was a book binder in Bond Street for many years. But she had memories of her Dad. Coming with some sweets every few weeks to see her. Kennith has a less romantic view. "I worked through the war for farmers. Tending to the pig swill. I was so hungry I would sneak some of their food dry biscuit and potato. After five years I was met by my step father on Eastbourne Street, Hessle off a bus.He introduced me to my mother propped up in bed in a pink night robe who was no less of a stranger.I was terrified. Being an evacuee left you with an indelible attitude to your nearest and dearest because of the long separations". Kennith has a positive spin on the future for Hull though.Rejuvination has come at last for Hull now it has been chosen as city of culture 2017. People here have always been friendly but are not ones to brag about themselves. Money invested in the infrastructure and community projects will help put the city on the map. Not before time. For decades the city was portrayed as a dead end". I leave.Joan and Kennith sat in the sunshine holding hands. A far cry from the original poppy sculpture Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the London Tower in 2014. There each poppy commemorated a soldier lost during the Commonwealth and were viewed by over a million people. The sea was to grow until the last. One was planted on 11 th November, but instead it was decided soldiers should be remembered in the provinces, which is how Weeping Window was possible as part of the 14-18NOW programme. The sculpture will be weeping from the window from Mothers's Day until 14 th May 2017.
