London: Marching women wearing the suffragette colours of green, white and violet are creating a living work of art as they parade through the centres of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London to celebrate the centenary of some women winning the right to vote.
As the marchers gathered, they were handed free scarves in the suffragette colours — 400,000 were made for the event — and in each city the parades are being choreographed so that from above the colours form one giant suffragette banner. Up to 10,000 women were expected on the streets of Cardiff alone
The Processions event, shown live on the BBC , was scheduled to take place whatever the weather, with the organisers, the arts event creators Artichoke, anxiously tracking the recent thunderstorms and torrents, but it proved a golden summer’s day.
The event, which has taken more than a year in the planning and organising, including having the scarves handmade by women in India, is part of the official 14-18 NOW arts festival marking the centenary of the First World War.
The marchers are carrying banners that are themselves works of art, made over the past few months by artists leading sewing groups including immigrants, refugees and homeless women. The banners are reminders of the original banners made and carried by suffragettes through the years of protests and mass demonstrations for the vote, but many also take up more recent themes of struggles for human rights.
One made in Swansea, with the slogan “The Red Dragon Inspires Action” has a patchwork garland of hands commemorating the women of the 1980s Greenham Common peace camps who joined hands around the perimeter fence.
