13 Apr 2017

The Expats: Marian Fountain

From Afternoons, 3:24 pm on 13 April 2017

At a dawn ceremony on 9 April, a sculpture called The Earth Remembers was unveiled at Wellington Quarry Museum in Arras, France.

It recognises the work of 500 New Zealand tunnellers who worked in the Arras quarries between 1916 and 1917, and also the people of Arras who kept their graves.

The sculpture was designed and made by New Zealand-born artist Marian Fountain, who has lived in France since 1991. 

She talks with Jesse Mulligan about her work and expat life in Paris.

"I felt the responsibility of speaking for all of New Zealand, really, and all the people that suffered in that war - not only the men, but their wives and families, the loss they would have felt."