In 2014 whilst working for Wyre Forest District Council and responsible for Kidderminster Arts Festival, I began the process of creating an artistic programme for the commemoration of the beginning of WWI. I wanted it to be something different, something that challenged a little. I wanted to create and curate a series of installations that reminded the public of all the sides of War and its effects on the world. Little did I know I would continue the concept four years later for DOCA.
The centre piece of the programme was to be a commission that needed to be outdoors and above ground because of planned development works happening in the town.
I approached Kathy Hinde, a Bristol based artist whose work I’d been interested in which inspired an idea that could work in the Kidderminster where a major regeneration project was making floor space limited. After the initial meeting, Kathy developed a proposal which became funded by Arts Council England, making the concept into a reality. ‘Luminous Birds’ evolved and has become one of Kathy’s most ambitious and defining works, touring widely and winning awards. The piece was picked up by Scottish production house Cryptic who attracted further investment enabling sound to be added. In 2018 Luminous Birds with its new soundscape came to Devizes as part of a wider programme of work to celebrate the end of WWI.

Luminous Birds has toured internationally and the soundtrack won Kathy a number of awards including the British Composer Award 2017 which I collected from the British Museum.
In Devizes, the piece was accompanied by an origami bird installation in St. John’s Church and thousands of poppies which enveloped local buildings and monuments knitted by hundreds of volunteers from all over the country.
Chalk Soldiers
This piece was originally co-created with Kidderminster artist Dom Dunlea, who, I’d worked with on a number of projects in the town over a period of years. We gathered a group of volunteers together and made stencils of soldiers which were used to create an outline representing 661soldiers who died in WWI from the town. We put the installation in place during a quiet early evening and waited. The outlines covered two pedestrianised streets and were a stark reminder of the impact of the war on the town. Over the coming weeks the installation attracted T.V coverage, thousands of hits on social media, debates in the streets, sermons in churches, positive and negative but all very strong responses from the public.
In Kidderminster I brought in Space Cadets who installed red and white inflatable dogs to commemorate the thousands of dogs that supported the war effort. We also worked with local crafts people to add knitted poppies to all of the street furniture in the Town Centre.
Chalk soldiers above in Kidderminster 2014 and below in Devizes 2018
In Devizes the piece inspired many further interventions, you can find more about the wider programme on the DOCA website