Paul Harfleet interview

Paul Harfleet is a Manchester-based artist who in 2005 devised and created The Pansy Project.  With it he revisits locations where homophobia has been experienced and plants pansies.

Could you tell me a bit about The Pansy Project? How did that come about? I presume you’re reclaiming the term ‘pansy’ with your project title – what strengths do pansies (the plants) have and how does this feature within what you do? You use self-seeding pansies I see.

A string of homophobic abuse was the catalyst for The Pansy Project. The day began with two builders shouting; “it’s about time we went gaybashing again isn’t it?”; continued with a gang of young boys throwing abuse and stones at my then boyfriend and me, and ended with a bizarre and unsettling confrontation with a man who called us ‘ladies’ under his breath.

Over the years I have become accustomed to this kind of behaviour, but I came to realise it was a shocking concept to most of my friends and colleagues.

It was in this context that I began to ponder the nature of these verbal attacks and their influence on my life. I realised that I felt differently about these experiences depending on my mental state so I decided to explore the way I was made to feel at the location where these incidents occur. What interested me was the way that the locations later acted as a prompt for me to consider the memories associated with that place. I wanted in some way to manipulate these associations, In order to feel differently about the location and the memories it summoned.