The Pansy Project

Paul Harfleet calls himself an "accidental activist" though others call him an installation artist, photographer, therapist, and, the one I like, guerrilla gardener.

Harfleet is the creator of the Pansy Project in Great Britain, where a solitary flower is planted in the nearest soil to the spot where homophobic abuse has reportedly happened. He used to work mainly in Manchester and Liverpool—creating his Pop-Up Plantings—but this summer he says he’ll plants pansies in more than a hundred sites across London. He will then photograph each pansy and then name after whatever abusive phrase was thrown.

Paul Harfleet

Harfleet created the project to highlight homophobic attacks by planting seeds of hope for those affected by them. And he has his work cut out for him; in London, there was a 14% rise in homophobic crime from May 2008 to November 2011. In fact, more recent figures show reported an 11.5% increase in homophobic crimes from February 2011 to February 2012.

A string of homophobic abuse during the summer of 2005 was the catalyst for the Pansy Project, according to Harfleet: "The day began with two builders shouting in my direction 'It's about time we went gay-bashing again isn't it?' [And then] later on, two people shouted homophobic obscenities from a car window. I began to realise instances of homophobia build up in your head and you don't realise you are carrying them with you”

At the end of the day, when he could scarcely take another abusive taunt, Harfleet says a man called him and his then-boyfriend ‘Ladies’ under his breath.

And the Pansy Project was born.

He was initially unsure on the type of flower to plant, but discovered the name "pansy" originates from the French word pensée meaning "thought", as the bowing head of the flower is seen to visually echo a person's face in deep thought.

"The pansies are still, peaceful and sad - that's what I like about them."—Paul Harfleet

And when he started planting the pansies, and then photographing them, he began to sense the cathartic effect it might have. Planting a pansy in a place where once a homophobic taunt was tossed about made him change his feelings about the location.

"I was acknowledging what had happened but overlaying the memory with something positive. Some people don't get it and think I'm perpetuating a derogatory term for gayness by planting the pansy. But, most people understand it's a positive thing I do."—Paul Harfleet

And now, eight years later, having planted thousands of pansies everywhere from Istanbul to New York City, he has realized that sometimes the simplest ideas can be the most effective. And with social media growing more and more every day, with people having access to the stories of hate crimes, gay bashings, and verbal abuse around the world, he is being inundated with locations where abuse has happened.

This week, he planted his first flower of the Pansy project in London, in Canary Wharf, where a bunch of kids walked past him and called him a ‘faggot’. A pansy grows on the nearest patch of grass to the shopping center.

Next week, he will begin planting flowers at locations where more high profile homophobic abuse cases have happened. He’ll start with the site where Jody Dobrowski was killed in 2005. Dobrowski was a 24-year-old assistant bar manager was punched and kicked death by two men who believed him to be gay.

A pansy for your thoughts.

'Queer'--Hill Street, Belfast

'Faggot'--Canary Wharf

'Batty Boy'--Manchester

'I think it's time we went gay bashing again'--Manchester

source and a h/t to ISBL reader Helen for pointing me toward this story