'Wish Tags' vandalised (From Dorset Echo)

'Wish Tags' vandalised

6:27am Wednesday 19th August 2009 in

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At sometime over last weekend the 'wish tags' were ripped from the fencing and left to litter the roadside.

But some kind person took the trouble to collect them all and hand them into the library.

The tags were part of the temporary arts project conceived by artist Claire Barber who said this about the incident.

‘It was deeply upsetting.

On Monday I visited the site and clearly all the tags by the road had been removed.

I was delighted to see them there, although I had only been given permission for the tags to be tied to the fencing on top of the hill overlooking Littlemoor. But to see them growing by the side of the road was a wonderful surprise, the comments on the tags were deeply moving.

Luckily I did photograph every tag on Friday and Saturday so no comments have actually been lost.

I am glad to say that I have received funding to make a book about Littlemoor Wishes which will be posted to every house in the area.

I hope this will go some way to lessening the blow to the individuals who wrote the tags and those who never got to see them on site. Yesterday the tags were still on top of Littlemoor hill and there are literally hundreds in place and I have photographed each one.

I decided to place a number of A3 laminated sheets that contain images of the roadside tags so that their content would still be there for all to see.

I have been touched by the Littlemoor residents participation and the wide breadth of response from all ages and ranges of people.

It has been an amazing response that I could never have imagined.

I am so glad I have the funding to make the book about Littlemoor Wishes, so that after I collect them all on 1st September there will something for all Littlemoor residents to keep.

The fact that the tags had been removed from the roadside site has been very distressing due to the deeply pertinent and touching comments placed on them.’