By Oscar Holland, CNN
(CNN) — In the days following the antisemitic attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead, a memorial site quickly filled with candles, stuffed toys, handwritten notes and thousands, perhaps even millions, of flowers.
Such spontaneous memorials are typically removed and their contents quietly disposed of. But Jewish artist Nina Sanadze saw a chance to immortalize the bouquets, even as their petals faded and decomposed. Before knowing precisely what she would do with them, she asked the Sydney Jewish Museum to help collect every flower from the site — more than three tons and counting — to transform into artworks commemorating Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in almost 30 years.
Even though authorities have now formally closed the memorials, flowers are still being laid, Sanadze said over the phone. “We’re going there, collecting fresh ones and preserving them,” she added, saying that “nothing is thrown away,” including leaves and seeds.
Drying and storing the rapidly deteriorating flowers was a huge logistical undertaking. The museum secured warehouse space and trucks to transport the plants in large black plastic bags, which Sanadze said “looked like body bags.” More than 100 volunteers have since helped dry the flowers, ironing them between tissues before sorting them “petal by petal, color by color,” she added. The artist also worked with professional florists to identify the various plant species.
“Some flowers are good at keeping color and look good when they’re dried, and some look brown. But it’s all part of the story.”
The pain of last month’s tragedy is still raw among the volunteers, many of whom hail from Sydney’s 44,000-strong Jewish community. The project has, however, proven therapeutic for many — including Sanadze herself.
“Honestly, we’re not talking about the attack at all. We’re just talking about flowers,” said the artist, who is based in Melbourne but spent weeks in the Sydney warehouse overseeing volunteers who’d come to help.
“Sometimes people just cry or come for a hug with a heavy, heavy heart.”
“I felt visceral anger,” she added of her reaction to the shooting, which Australia marks with a National Day of Mourning on Thursday. “But working with the flowers softened me again and softened my heart. It helped me, in that way, to process my anger.
“I cannot afford to fall apart. I think the minute I sit down, because I’m exhausted or feel really upset, I cannot get up from the couch. So it’s helped me keep going.”
Rising tide of antisemitism
With the preservation and sorting wrapping up earlier this week, Sanadze’s attention must now turn to more artistic matters. She has been given a year to complete the works ahead of the reopening of Sydney Jewish Museum, which is currently undergoing a major redevelopment and expansion.
Although best known as a sculptor, Sanadze envisages the project as a collection of mixed-media works, each using the flowers in different ways. She is, for instance, planning a series of paintings, based on photographs of the attack’s aftermath, that use pigments extracted from the petals.
The artist is also considering artworks featuring messages left by mourners, as well as an indoor garden grown from some of the recovered seeds. Decomposing plant matter will meanwhile be composted and used to make seats, flooring and tiles for the museum.
“I’m wondering whether we can have multiple rooms in the museum, where you go from room to room and the work unfolds with a variety of installations,” she said, adding that she is “going with the flow.”
Another of Sanadze’s ideas intersects w