Holtam, Helen

20/07/2009

Audio file duration: 00:15:21 Format of original recording: wav 44.1 khz 16 bit MicportPro.

These recordings are part of the One & Other interview series that has been licensed by the Wellcome Trust for public use under Creative Commons Attribution-non commercial-Share Alike 3.00 UK. This means that anyone based in the UK can share and remix the material, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Credits, where given, should be to the library at Wellcome Collection, London. (c) Wellcome Trust.

Helen Holtam lives in central London. She has been watching the project daily since it began. She has a rainbow peace flag because she is a Quaker and pacifism is key to this. She will also be folding origami butterflies and sending them to people as a symbol of peace and because she likes origami. She has also baked chocolate muffins to give to people in the crowd. She thinks her time on the plinth will affect her more than anyone else, because she feels that she is making a statement. She will identify more with people's anxieties after her time on the plinth and has had to think about how to identify herself. She is doing the project for herself and for her family. She describes herself as busy - she teaches maths at a referral unit in Lambeth and has four children. She is also a vicar's wife. She is also enthusiastic, talkative, interested in people and an encourager. Being reasonably happy and helping the world going a bit more smoothly are important to her; she hopes for a more peaceful world and a calmer self. She is a Quaker, her father was a conscientious objector in the second world war and so was placed on a farm in Wiltshire where he became a Quaker. She has always felt very supported and loved by the Quaker community. She describes the way Quakers work but explains that she did not want to talk about her faith while on the plinth.