New installation in Liverpool Cathedral explores our similarities and togetherness
Peter Walker returns to Liverpool Cathedral this summer, with the third installation of his series. Following the overwhelming reaction to both 'Peace Doves' and 'Being Human', this final chapter in the story focuses on the individual identities of humans, presented as a collective community.
Transcript
00:00 A new installation in Liverpool Cathedral explores our similarities and togetherness.
00:06 Sculpted inside the building, it's artist Peter Walker's third installation of the series.
00:12 Identity We Are All Together is his largest installation to date.
00:17 Identity is based on these seven columns that we see behind me.
00:21 They're all designed to look like DNA.
00:24 DNA is you and I, everyone we'll ever meet, from the start of humanity to the end of humanity,
00:30 we're all connected through our DNA.
00:31 That's what unites everyone.
00:33 And the base principle of this project is in a world where there's lots of conflict,
00:37 where everyone has individual journeys, we often find that there's miscommunication about
00:43 what's going on and it causes conflict.
00:46 If we actually come back to the core of everything, that we're all connected, then actually the
00:50 existential self, that individuality, that who we are and how we're connected, what communities
00:56 we're engaged with and what makes us individually and what our life experience is, instead of
01:02 looking at that through our own reflective eyes, we should look at it at their individual
01:07 journey and we should appreciate and actually enjoy it.
01:10 And if we start to look at individuals and communities like that, then actually we're
01:14 all united, we're just on different paths.
01:17 Following peace doves and being human, this final chapter in the story focuses on the
01:22 individual identities of humans presented as a collective community.
01:27 What the seven cylindrical shapes do is give us the impression of individuality in terms
01:34 of our DNA and who we are through the photograph, but also of our collectiveness in the fact
01:40 that we are all part of humanity and that we have a responsibility to care for one another.
01:46 Identity's visual impact is supported by its ability to change colour throughout its
01:51 day, representing symbols of various communities and our shared values, as well as individuality,
01:58 including our ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
02:02 The fact that the lights change as well into the rainbow people of God, that we're all
02:07 different, that everybody is made differently, but at the end of the day we're all united
02:13 in our common humanity.
02:15 Whilst the reference to DNA demonstrates the uniqueness of us all, the columns are wrapped
02:20 in over 3,000 individual portraits, all photographed as part of Peter's 2022 installation, Being
02:27 Human, presented together as a collective.
02:31 What we've done is we've made the DNA of this building and the DNA of this building is the
02:35 people that made it and inhabit it and will inhabit it for the next hundreds of years
02:39 as the building moves forward and the city moves forward.
02:41 So now this DNA incorporates people and when somebody stands in front, there's going to
02:46 be a great shot there of standing in front of it with your arms out or something like
02:49 that.
02:50 So when people stand in front of it, they're actually part of something that there's already
02:53 3,000 people there behind them, showing how big the communities are that we live in and
02:57 we're part of.
02:59 The installation will be available for visitors to view from now until Sunday 3rd September.