Floral Installation: “Flowers for the Frontline”by Philip Norman (London, UK)
This installation is a living space of memory, solidarity, and hope. It consists of dried or preserved flowers, gathered into floating bouquets — suspended in mid-air by thin copper wires that catch the light and tremble with the slightest movement. Copper here is not only a physical material, but also a symbol of conductivity — of connection between people and places, between past and present, between those who send these flowers and those to whom they are addressed.
In our Flowers from the Frontline project, flowers become witnesses and bearers of meaning — gathered in trenches, on the streets of Kyiv during shelling, in parks where children once played. Each flower, each stem in this installation is not just a decorative element, but a voice. A voice of a landscape wounded by war. A voice of those who have stayed and live in defiance. A voice of those who are near — and those who are far, yet not indifferent.
The form of a bouquet is familiar, intimate, and universal. Across cultures, it can symbolise joy, gratitude, mourning, farewell, or hope. Here, they are clusters of love and compassion, united in a vast circle of solidarity. In this circle, there are no "distant" or "foreign" people — only those who remember and care.
The installation “Flowers for the Frontline” is an attempt to convey tenderness in a time of cruelty. A floral message from the rear — to the front line. From one heart to another.