Wednesday, October 18, 2006

A pansy for Edgar Garzon

Ok, this blog hasn't been a barrel of laughs lately and sometimes it even seems to me as if it's become a compedium of the latest anti-gay attack against people of color in the city. And yes, I have written about Eddie Garzon at length in the past. But then you find a blog out there and it's impossible not to make a comment.

Enter UK artist Paul Harfleet and his Pansy Project. Recently, Mr. Harfleet was in New York touring the project. As you will see at the link above, the goal of the project is as follows:
Artist Paul Harfleet revisits city streets planting pansies as close as possible to where verbal homophobic abuse has been experienced. These self-seeding pansies act as a living memorial to this abuse and operate as an antidote to it, some pansies wither whilst others thrive in car park borders and windswept road verges. Each pansy's location is named after the abuse received. Click on 'locations' to see where the pansies have been planted
A surprise: Mr. Harfleet planted the above pansy in honor of my friend Eddie Garzon while in New York. Something that I found out through The Pansy Project blog.

For some reason, the sentiment is tremendously moving. Thank you, Pansy Project.

2 comments:

Harfleet & Jack said...

Hello,

My name is Paul Harfleet; as the creator of The Pansy Project. I just wanted to thank you for posting the piece about my work on your blog. It is very affecting to realise that the project is connecting with people, and it is so sad to see that such terrible crimes continue.

all the best

Paul Harfleet

miss wild thing said...

What a beautiful vision. It creates hope just by planting a flower in hate and seeing it thrive and give back to us hurt by these crimes. Thanks to both of you for your vision of hope.