Paul Cummins

(Click here for a larger version.)

A couple of last looks at the sea of ceramic poppies at the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins at the Tower of London, from my shift helping to “plant” them.

(Click here for a larger version.)

Those of us planting poppies at the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins became part of the tourist attraction that is the Tower of London.

During my shift at the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins at the Tower of London, we “planted” 5,000 ceramic poppies. Well, 5,000 minus a few.

A very few. This seems to me like a remarkably small number of breakages and unusables.

This woman brought along her own patriotic ground tarp for volunteer poppy assembling and planting at the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins at the Tower of London.

Volunteers assembling the stakes for the ceramic poppies at the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins at the Tower of London.

The poppies sit between two series of rubber washers and bolts. You can see the top assemblage here:

Ceramic poppies — sans stalks — await implantation at the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins at the Tower of London.

We planted 5,000 poppies during my volunteer shift this past Sunday.

Last month I posted a photo from the WWI memorial installation “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” by artist Paul Cummins taking shape at the Tower of London. Yesterday, I did a shift as one of the volunteers who are “planting” the ceramic flowers in the moat… which is not a place most people ever get to visit. I’ll be sharing up-close photos from the work and the poppies all week.