Poppies: Wave

– Outdoors

About Poppies: Wave

Wave is a sweeping arch of bright red poppy heads suspended on towering stalks designed by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper, created to mark the centenary of the outbreak of war.

Wave alongside Weeping Window came to audiences at venues across the country as part of the 14-18 NOW programme. As with all of 14-18 NOW's projects, the presentation of the sculptures to new audiences across the United Kingdom aimed to prompt a new, nationwide dialogue around the legacy of the First World War.

The breath taking sculptures were initially conceived as the key dramatic sculptural elements in the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in the autumn of 2014. Over the course of their time at the Tower, the two sculptures were gradually surrounded by a vast field of ceramic poppies, each one planted by a volunteer in memory of the life of a British and Colonial soldier lost during the First World War. In their original setting they captured the public imagination and were visited by over five million people.

  • A cascade of red poppies flowing over a bridge into a lake.
  • A cascade of red poppies flowing over a bridge into a lake.
  • A cascade of red poppies flowing over a bridge into a lake.

You might also like

More
  1. A large sculpture of a pregnant woman, with half her skin removed to reveal muscles and internal organs.
    Art Outdoors

    Damien Hirst: The Virgin Mother

    Damien Hirst's The Virgin Mother stands at 10 metres tall and is the tallest sculpture at YSP.
  2. A seated humanoid figure covered in brightly coloured mosaic tiles
    Art Outdoors

    Niki de Saint Phalle: Buddha

    Niki de Saint Phalle began creating figurative works in the mid-1960s. In response to the pressures of domestic life as daughter, mother and wife, she created her iconic Nana figures. The colourful and voluptuous sculptural works are celebrations of the female form. These goddess-like figures continued as a form of expression throughout the artist’s life, and paralleled modern feminist efforts to reconsider and revalue the female body.
  3. Three framed abstract paintings depicting birds and foliage, displayed on a white gallery wall.

    Andrew Waddington: Betwixt and Between – The Poetry of Landscape

    –
    Bringing the Cornish coast to Yorkshire, this exhibition features new paintings, prints, and drawings.
  4. A South Asian man wearing glasses and a purple jumper
    Profile

    Saad Qureshi