Silent Stories#1

Statues have a way of finding me. I don't set out to photograph them, yet they appear—in plazas, gardens, and street corners—each with its own silent story.  Some are famous, others almost forgotten, but all of them invite a pause. 

 Perhaps they fascinate me because public statues are relatively uncommon back home in Malaysia, so every encounter feels like discovering a small piece of another culture.

I'm beginning a new statue series. This week's encounter is the first piece from my growing gallery of statues discovered along the way.

Bronze statue of "Agriculture" located on the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace.

• Name: Agriculture

• Sculptor: Designed by Sir Thomas Brock and unveiled in 1911.

• Symbolism: An allegorical representation of farming and harvest, depicting a woman in peasant attire holding a sickle alongside a powerful walking lion symbolising British national strength and power.

• Origin: Gifted to the monument by the people of New Zealand, together with its counterpart.

• Location: One of the four outer corner bronze groups of the monument directly outside the gates of Buckingham Palace in London.

• Part of a Series: Represents Agriculture, one of four allegorical groups symbolising the nation's Victorian-era ideals: Agriculture, Manufacture (Industry), Peace, and Progress.

"Inanimate objects sometimes appear endowed with a strange power of sight. A statue notices, a tower watches, the face of an edifice contemplates"      Victor Hugo