Local people offered chance to make art history with giant Hyacinth Bucket challenge for Derry walls

The major public art sculpture project being run by Void Offsites involves 90 individual flowers being made out of papier-mache by members of the public and being assembled into a giant hyacinth flower in red, green and blue.

The Hyacinth Bucket plant will then be assembled and displayed on the Derry Walls overlooking the Bogside on September 25.

All people have to do is email or phone the team at Void to arrange to collect their free materials and there’s instructions in the pack as well as a full video where the artist demonstrates how to make them.

The RGB Hyacinth project is the first of the Void Offsites commissions by Alan Phelan and is a crowd-sourced sculpture made by individual participants in isolation and then assembled together to create the final artwork.

For this sculpture the ‘small flowers’ of the hyacinth are enlarged to the size of a bucket - two lightweight domestic buckets are used to make the mould for the flower, which is layered with paper to make strong papier-mâché.

Each flower is made by one person, at home, and then returned to Void.

The flowers will be assembled by the Void team onto a support structure on site on the Derry Walls and an opening celebration will take place on the September 25.

After the exhibition is over the bucket flower can be collected by each maker and used to make a fruit bowl or wall decoration.

A spokesperson said: “No massive art making experience is needed - all the instructions will be provided as well as a video which follows the same guide. All materials are supplied by Void with only a few extra things needed which should be around the house.

“Materials are ready for collection. Flowers must be returned by September 1. In order to adhere to social distancing, please email Maeve at [email protected] or phone 028 7130 8080 to arrange a collection time.”

For more check out the video at www.vimeo.com/438681955