A remarkable mass expression of hope and peace will likely take your breath away in Chichester Cathedral this autumn.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers, and it's
00:06 fantastic to be speaking to Peter Walker, who is masterminding something truly fabulous
00:11 in Chichester Cathedral this autumn. Something like, we're not holding you to a precise number,
00:17 but something like 15,000 peace dubs will be suspended above the nave, each with a very
00:23 individual message of hope and message of peace. How did this whole thing happen?
00:31 The peace dubs is a touring artwork that we take around a number of cathedrals around
00:35 the UK. We're bringing it here to Chichester. It's going to look beautiful in this space,
00:41 really really remarkable space here. And it's different to many artworks where an artist
00:46 will create an artwork and they will bring it somewhere and people look at it. Here we're
00:50 actually looking at a community expression, a community coming together to help me as
00:55 an artist create something, which is a very large piece of art. It's a very large artwork
01:00 at its own pace. But each individual artwork that they've made, each expression of peace
01:06 and hope, as you say, that is written on one of our individual peace dubs, that in itself
01:11 is almost the fingerprint of the community. We bring all of that together, all 15,000
01:16 of them, suspend them within the nave, and then we create this monumental artwork here
01:21 within the building, which really sits in harmony with the architecture, but as a really
01:27 beautiful and ethereal...
01:28 And you were saying as it tours, so it feels individual to the respective venues it goes
01:35 to. It reflects what's happening in that community, doesn't it?
01:39 That's true. Even though it's an artwork in itself, everywhere we go we re-curate it.
01:44 So we redesign it on site for the building, for the architecture, and wherever we go,
01:49 the community and the feelings of that community are expressed through how they engage with
01:54 writing or participation within the project. Around 6,000 children, I think, have been
02:00 invited within schools as well to be involved in this. So it really is a big community effort
02:05 to bring it together. But that artwork at the end, then, that's my job as the sculptor,
02:10 to then design that in the space, so we have a piece of work that is fitting of a building
02:14 which is enriched with artwork.
02:17 And it sounds like there's a really lovely balance between the privacy of these individual
02:20 messages, which are obviously folded, so not that obvious, but also they're suspended and
02:25 therefore become part of this massive collective thing, don't they? A collective expression
02:31 of something.
02:32 Yeah, very much so. The whole idea here is that every individual message of Hope and
02:38 Peace comes together to create that collective. We don't often have the opportunity to do
02:43 that, to come together and to say something through our own voices, but to bring it together.
02:48 So by doing that, that actually creates the whole and the essence of the work. But those
02:53 individual messages, those individual thoughts that people have, they're out of eyesight.
03:00 You might see the odd word when you look up, but by being out of eyesight, there is privacy
03:04 to it, but there is knowledge that they're there for when people to come in. And also
03:08 that these shared concerns, these shared thoughts, with another 14,000 plus people, all of your
03:14 thoughts and cares and wishes, and some of them are very moving, some of them are quite
03:18 profound, some of them, some people are looking for end to war, some people are thinking about
03:25 a loved one who they've lost and they're still thinking about. So by bringing all that together
03:29 actually shows a great deal of the emotion of this community.
03:34 And for you as the sculptor, it must be fascinating to watch people come in. Do you have a little
03:38 look and see the reactions as people enter?
03:42 We do at times. I often say that our artwork, when we create these big installations, are
03:48 based on three specific parts. So one is the artwork itself, that's what we bring together.
03:56 The second is the venue, and here it's a remarkable venue with hundreds of years of history imbued
04:03 in these walls and hundreds of years of artwork imbued within the building itself and the
04:08 glass windows, etc. And then the third part is the audience, the visitor to the building.
04:15 And as soon as they come into the building, that's when the artwork comes alive. And it's
04:18 through that engagement that we have the emotional connection. You know, we see children moving
04:25 and dancing underneath, sometimes we see people hugging underneath. There's also music accompanying
04:31 it as well, which is really beautiful and meditative. And all of those elements together,
04:36 when we've seen people engage with these artworks in the past, create for a really beautiful
04:41 and serene experience.
04:42 Goodness, it sounds fabulous. It sounds incredibly powerful too. Really lovely to speak to you
04:47 and I look forward very much indeed to actually seeing it. Thank you ever so much for your
04:52 time. Thank you.
04:53 Thank you. Thank you.