Susan Hiller, Monument 1980-81

Susan Hiller, Monument 1980-81 at Tate Britain.

Monument 1980-01 (41 photographs, colour, on paper, bench, tape player, headphone and audio)

Monument replicates and enlarges 41 memorial plaques from Postman's Park, London, which was first proposed by Victorian sculptor George Frederic Watts. Each plaque commemorates an ordinary person who died while saving the lives of others. You can sit and listen to a sound piece narrated by the artist. She speaks about the nature of heroism, and the duration of a life compared to the duration of a name on a plaque. Hiller was struck by how rarely members of the public noticed or read the plaques in Postman's Park.