Six years ago I started The Pansy Project; I plant pansies at the site of homophobic abuse, photograph the flowers in these locations of attack and name them after the abuse received. The photographs are then posted on my website; www.thepansyproject.com. Through a wide variety of activities including social networking, pansy & 39;hand-outs& 39; and exhibition of the photographs and Pansy Project installations I encourage discussion and debate surrounding the nature of homophobia, this simple act operates as a powerful tool to confront hate crime and as a symbolic resistance to it. Through The Pansy Project I have worked with young gay organisations, gay festivals and families of those murdered as a result of homophobia, occasionally only receiving limited funding.
I want to research and create a publication that documents The Pansy Project by bringing together all of the photographs and through writings explore the nature of The Pansy Project and the many fields it traverses from artistic practice, psychology, homophobia, psycho-geography, urban art and guerrilla gardening.
As the word of The Pansy Project spreads I find it ever more challenging to balance my time with working in other unrelated fields to raise meagre funds to continue the variety of activities I engage in from plantings to speaking about the project. The financial support gained here would allow me to fund a period of research and development into the potential future of The Pansy Project; as a global organisation that supports those that experience homophobia, to create a structure that allows others to contribute and engage with the project, and to explore the sustainability of The Pansy Project in the long term.
All contributors will be mentioned/named and thanked in the finished publication made as a result of funding gained through CrowdFunder and additionally on The Pansy Project website and blog. Contributors donating £15 and more will receive a handmade Pansy Project Thank you Card. Contributors donating more than £50 will receive a signed publication, including postage and packaging. Contributors donating £200 and more will receive a signed publication and a signed unframed limited edition A2 C-Type Pansy Project Print, including postage and packaging.