It was artist Alec Finlay’s vision that Scotland’s Covid Memorial should be secluded but also everywhere, while drawing on inspiration from the landscape around him in Pollok Country Park. He has achieved just that.
I remember: Scotland’s Covid Memorial, designed and created by Mr Finlay, consists of a series of wooden tree supports in the Glasgow park. They are formed from physical poses and reflect how a person felt at a certain moment during the pandemic.
Read more: Thank you Scotland - you did it! Covid memorial hits funds target
The idea of I remember was to create a memorial walk featuring the support artworks in groves and alongside paths to remember those lost or affected by the pandemic. It was always our hope to be able to offer spaces for solace or quiet contemplation.
The first sculptures at the Riverside and Birch Groves were installed in March, with help from Alastair Letch. Further spaces at the Hillside and Beech Groves, along with The Ash Road, will complete the walk by March 2023.
Work on what will become one of the main focal points, the Riverside Grove, is now complete and features several supports. From a distance the supports appear to be small figures, but the closer visitors get to the supports on a mound, they will see the unique and individual shapes.
Some people may even recognise their own support outline while others have been designed by Mr Finlay himself.
Mr Finlay said it was great news that the funds target had been reached to allow the memorial to take shape.
He said: “Now that the hard work of installing phase one of the memorial artwork is complete, and people can walk from the Riverside Grove to the Birch Grove, as well as downloading the audio of Robert Carlyle reading ‘I remember’, I hope that the scale and character of the final project is tangible.
“Meeting people as we were installing, I was touched by the warmth of their responses. It felt as if the forms of the supports communicated vulnerability, healing and solidarity in the way I had hoped they would.”
Mr Finlay said the intention of creating a memorial which would be made by the people of Scotland, as well as seen by them, is at the heart of the ‘I remember’ project.
He added: “In less than a month we will be able to share the book, rich in memories, from anguish and grief to humour, and launch this first phase.”
The unique supports will carry the words “I remember”, which will be written not just in English, but other languages.
Mr Finlay, and his team of Lucy Richards, Ken Cockburn, and Kate McAllan, reached out to people using the idea of the I remember form – a single sentence of an individual’s thoughts and reflections.
Mr Finlay received hundreds of moving passages and also some which reflected the lighter moments of the pandemic. All of the I remembers have been collected in a book, and will be archived by the National Library of Scotland. They were also buried in boxes at the Riverside Grove during a poignant ceremony. An audiobook, read by Carlyle, is accessible via QR-code plaques on the supports, using a smartphone.
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