Remembering Together is a nationwide project, where Greenspace Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Government, funded memorials in each local authority to commemorate the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shetland Arts, alongside Shetland Islands Council, commissioned an artist to conduct a community consultation around what the community would like a memorial to look like here in Shetland. From that, 5 artists were then commissioned to work across Shetland responding to it. They worked across art forms, and often with collaborators and community input. There were a further 4 artists commissioned to capture this process into a film and a book.
The film and book will become Shetland’s COVID memorial.
The film can be found online here. The book will be distributed across Shetland in public spaces shortly.
Helen Robertson
The commission for Remembering Together got Helen thinking about how important windows were during the pandemic. She explains: “Folk were inside looking out through a window, or they were outside looking in. They were connected through glass and also disconnected through glass”.
The symbolism of windows during the Covid lockdown is a central element in Helen’s project. Helen created glass plaques, which were sent to every Shetland Community Council, with a knitted wire ‘Tree of Life’ inside. This design was also placed on a flag which is to be flown at Lerwick Town Hall each year on the 29th May, the day that the first Lockdown was lifted. She says: “The idea is to bring all the communities together. Every Shetland community will have a plaque with this symbol on it and the same symbol will be flown from Town Hall”.
Helen recognises the importance that art has played for the community in reflecting on Covid-19: “It’s the art people have been engaging in, and on the way, you’re releasing some of that Covid backstory and you’re connecting with your neighbours […] I mean, I would never have got five folk in my shed if I’d said to them – ‘Do you want to come to my shed on Saturday and we’ll talk about Covid?’ – they’d be like – ‘Nah, I’m not going to do that’. But because I said – ‘Do you want to come to my shed on Saturday and knit a coaster and we might have a peerie speak about Covid’ – then they’re like – ‘Well, okay then’ – because the hook is the art”.
Helen says she is honoured to have been selected to work on a memorial that captures the Covid experiences of the Shetland community. “It's just been such an honour, really, to be honest. It's just been such a privilege to have done it”.
“I think the idea with flag flying is that it’s a chance for folk to reflect, and to think ‘Oh yeah – this happened to me’. I think we’ll all be processing this for a long time”.
