World Braille Day

We decided a couple of weeks ahead of World Braille Day that we would set ourselves the creative challenge of celebrating it with an installation. We set our standards high for this installation because it had been so long since we’d produced one… and oh boy was it challenging. 48 bottle caps were needed to “write” the phrase “they always come back” in Braille. That phrase is part of the official tourism slogan for Larnaca. It refers to the flamingos that migrate to the Larnaca Salt Lake every winter… and so the location was invariably the Salt Lake.

Over two weeks, we experimented with sketches and glues and perspex and angles until this beauty of an installation was born. Maya was the director of this project, full of creative ideas. I was the producer, in so much as I love my drill and bolts and all things DIY. Unfortunately I didn’t account for the sand at the Lake being so hard, so I couldn’t dig the poles into it to support the structure as I expected. And so we used rocks to hold it up just long enough to take these beautiful pictures. A valuable lesson learned: if you plan to ground yourself (or your art) into mother earth, consult her in advance. Like people, she’s more likely to be amenable if you take your time to get to know her instead of stabbing away fervently.

Installation Date: 4 January 2021