More than 200 ceramic poppies are sprouting in the courtyard at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s (KPU) Surrey campus for Remembrance Day.
Titled “Garden of Poppies,” the art installation is a collaboration between KPU fine arts instructor Ying-Yueh Chuang and international student Claudia Shen.
“We created this installation to honour our veterans and also fundraise for the Royal Canadian Legion. We’ve included signage for online donations and, starting Nov. 12, those who donate are invited to take home a poppy from the installation,” says Shen, a fourth-year fine arts student at KPU.
Over the summer, Chuang and Shen led hands-on poppy-making workshops for KPU fine arts students and members of the Fraser Valley Potters Guild, with more than 50 participants contributing to the installation.
The workshops were part of another ceramic collaboration between Chuang and Shen, which is currently on display at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario. The piece, titled “When Will We Ever Learn,” was accepted into the gallery’s Remembrance Every Day: Lest We Forget, Let Us Create, Artists Commemorate, Canada Remembers exhibition.
“We were invited to make art on the theme of peace and war. We decided to make a sculpture of a teddy bear with yellow toy ducks to represent the innocence of children during the war. We have a bomb tied to the bear and bullet holes going through it, but we also included flowers representing peace in different cultures,” says Chuang.
Chuang adds that this instructor-student collaboration was a result of ongoing political tensions between China and Taiwan.
“I’m originally from Taiwan, and Claudia is from China. Through this collaboration, we hope to highlight the significance of how people of Chinese descent from different regions can work together to create something meaningful and beautiful — an artistic expression that conveys the importance of peace.
“At a time when the world is already witnessing so many wars, our project aspires to communicate a message of unity and the shared hope that peace will prevail everywhere.”
The full poppy installation will be on display at KPU Surrey until Nov. 11.
From Nov. 12 to Nov. 18, visitors may take a poppy home by donating online to the Royal Canadian Legion at legion.ca/donations.