In Memorium

Collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Luke Jerram.

The Weathered Lives project has been enriched by our collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Luke Jerram, whose practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and living art projects. Luke is known globally for his innovative arts practice and large-scale public artworks.

Throughout 2020, living the weather became intertwined with our experiences of the global Covid-19 pandemic. As lockdown entered our lives in Spring and continued in varying intensities through Summer, Autumn and Winter, different weather elements along with the presence or absence of daylight took on greater magnitude for how able we felt to weather the Covid storm. At the same time, we became increasingly sensitised to air flow; what could be carried on the wind, for how long and for what distance? Face masks introduced feelings of stuffiness and suffocation, even when worn in open air.

Our collaboration helped inform Luke’s latest artwork In Memoriam – a temporary memorial for the public to visit to remember those lost from the COVID-19 pandemic and to pay tribute to all the NHS health and care workers who have been risked their lives during the crisis. The flags are created from bed sheets and arranged in the form of a medical logo.

Presented in the open air and in windy locations, In Memoriam references the role that the weather played in our health and mental wellbeing during lockdown. Changing minute by minute, it responds to the altering weather conditions; amplifying the weather while making the invisible air currents visible. Visitors to In Memoriam have commented on the various emotions that are echoed somehow by the different ways that the wind moves through the flags; from furious billowing, to quieter, calmer rippling.

Find out more about In Memoriam here.