Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England was supposed to be doing the honours today at the Official Opening of the Jubilee Building, but for unforeseen reasons he couldn’t come !
His place was taken by the local MP Jeremy Browne, who was able to stand in at very short notice. I am sure that everyone was disappointed not to have the head honcho in attendance. Everyone has worked incredibly hard on the project, from the Trusts’s Capital Projects team, BDP Architects and BAM to medical and ancillary staff. However, it was a lovely day all round and the weather was perfect for showing off the building.
This was the first time that I had seen both my projects – ‘70 years on…”& ‘Murmuration’ fully installed. I couldn’t have asked for a better day to see them. The Art for Life team, led by Lisa Harty have done an amazing job in co-ordinating and presenting the work. I am very grateful to them.
From left to right – Chris Cutting from the League of Friends, Colin Drummond, Chair of the Trust, Jo Cubbon, Chief Executive Officer & Jeremy Browne MP
’70 years on…’was manufactured & installed by Architen Landrell with digital printing by VGL
Digital Printing onto vinyl mesh fabric applied to a stainless steel and aluminium ladder frame to create the tensile screen.
The building was delivered by Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s Capital Project Team in partnership with BAM and BDP Architects
I was commissioned on several projects in relation to the new building as well as being involved with the Trust as Lead Artist for almost 10 years, throughout their 10 year programme of regeneration and new build.
‘Murmuration’and ’70 years on…’ are two of the projects now completed & installed in the building. These have both featured in detail in earlier posts here. Please scroll down to review –
Yesterday, I travelled up to Aylesbury to discuss the possibility of being commissioned for more work for the Whiteleaf Centre, which is now open and fully operational. This is the first visit I have made since the Centre opened. Really interesting to see it animated & full of people. Tom Cox from Artcare at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust who commissioned all the artists for the project accompanied me around the wards and introduced my to staff who discussed with us the impact of the original artwork installations and the possibility of future collaborations with staff and service users to build upon this. Watch this space !
Within the ward hubs there are some high windows, which really demonstrated the effectiveness of the glazing manifestations in producing variation and change within the spaces depending on the weather.
The art project is now completed on site with all the digitally printed panels installed.
I visited on Friday 14th November to review progress & the following images are taken from that visit.
The brief was built around the need for privacy in the rooms. Large glazed screens open up onto a landscaped courtyard. Although these spaces are being planted with trees and some small shrubs, most of the space would be turfed. Patients, staff & visitors can still see out from the windows in the knowledge that their privacy was being maintained. Opaque and transparent layers with drawn & cut out detailing were created to provide some variation & changeability in the surface.
The project was approved last week and the files went to print earlier this week. The last two days have seen most of the digitally printed vinyl installed.
’70 years on…’ CENTRAL CONCOURSE SCREEN FOR THE JUBILEE BUILDING, MUSGROVE PARK HOSPITAL
I recently came across the work of the photographer, John Seaman, who had been commissioned by the main contractor for the Jubilee Building BAM to make a photographic record. Very lucky for me, that he has a great eye for catching the spirit & intent of the tensile artwork and its relationship to the building and interior space. ’70 years on…’ was a collaboration with Architen Landrell & VGL Vinyl Graphics & was commissioned by Musgrove Park Hospital Capital Projects Office & Art for Life
The Central Concourse Screen ’70 years on…’ was created to celebrate the delivery of the Jubilee Surgical Building & the 70th Anniversary of Musgrove Park Hospital. The project was Heritage Lottery funded.
The work is presented as a digitally printed tensile fabric screen made of 26 individually printed panels. It is supported by a bespoke lightweight aluminium & stainless steel double-sided ladder frame 21m x 1.8m, which is itself hung from 3 steel supporting columns of the Central Concourse building. The design & manufacture of the tensile screen and its method of digital printing balance well with the content of the work & its evocation of the past to present a contemporary artwork in a 21st Century Hospital.
The artwork is presented as a landscape, which, other than at each end, where curved steel panels protect the structure, the artwork can be viewed as a continual narrative sequence. However, this is not a timeline or a linear narrative, which has to be viewed in a particular way or from a particular viewpoint. The observer can simply roll up at any point along its 42m length and begin a journey or their own.
Text was employed in the design as both an aid to the visual narrative & to emphasize the importance of the hospital’s archive collection in this 70th Anniversary year. It also recalls individual and collective voices from the last 70 years. The work done by Louise Donovan, an archivist working with staff and patients past and present to recall their experiences working here has been included in “Sensing our Past”. 70 years of Musgrove Park Hospital’, published in 2012
Words have been used to draw with, or to conjure up the dynamic energy of the hospital. It is presented in a variety of ways, for example, following the line of the Galmington Stream, which runs along the boundary of the Hospital, or as a gestural expression, such as the whirlwind vortex drawing, or a simple circle of fine white text.
They are an eclectic and often mis-matched set of words, evocative of half remembered memories, anecdotes and stories, (as opposed to reproducing hard facts and figures within a fixed timeline). There are perhaps more ‘distant’ voices from early in the life of the hospital, particularly from it’s wartime experience, but I feel this is the way with memory – recall is distant and suggestive of the ‘good old days’.
Some elements within the artwork are obviously and easily recognizable, such as the iconic Eisenhower Tree & Galmington Stream, whilst others are abstract and elusive. A great number of the references are archival in origin, such as the colours, which were influenced by boxes of medical artifacts, some in the original packaging.
Bunches of flowers appear from between the seam joints, which evoke the Lily of the Valley presented to HM The Queen Mother or flowers given by visitors, which were held in vases attached to columns in the Nightingale wards.
The photographic archive too, which contains hundreds of images of staff at work and celebrating events such as Christmas & retirements, as well as visits by Royalty, or the American World Heavyweight Boxer, Joe Louis and the entertainer Bob Hope, who both visited the Hospital during World War II.
My own personal experience of being a part of this Hospital community since 2005, when I was appointed Lead Artist on the 10 year Hospital development programme is also evident in magery influenced by past projects undertaken here.
We now have a schedule agreed and are working to issue draft artwork for comment and hopefully, approval by this time next week.
It was agreed that the principle we should follow is to develop a highly visual & primarily figurative narrative, which also provides a privacy screen between the users of the ward rooms and the external courtyards. The courtyard landscapes are brand new, with ground level put to grass and no planting at height to provide cover or privacy screening. This has however provided the opportunity to create a new and imaginary landscape, which bridges the gap between figurative and recognisable details and structures from the external landscape, alongside abstract and original forms and patterns found within the artwork.
The works are to be digitally printed onto optically clear vinyl in layers of opaque and transparent white, with some added colour. The attention to detail will be focussed on a horizontal band across the mid section of the glazing screen to provide privacy. The top section will be left clear, so that uninterrupted views of the sky can be had. We are working closely with Guardian Window Film to manufacture & install the work.
These images are simply the first steps in creating a visual language and narrative for the project. The artwork is being developed as a long rectangular landscape – as a view through a window – . Each of the 10 ward rooms – each with a window, will be detailed with a section of this work, to give the appearance that each room has a unique identity and view of its own.
The artwork draft above shows the printed artwork as shades and layers of opaque white. The black areas will show as clear glass in the final works.
There are 10 small one & two bed ward rooms arranged in two ward blocks within the new hospital by Nightingale Architects. The rooms are full of natural light and the interior colour schemes are muted and calm, with the odd spot of brighter colour, such as the chair. The artwork manifestation will respond to this scheme. The views through the windows are now partially obscured, providing a degree of privacy for the user, whilst also maintaining sufficient clear glass to allow natural light and changing weather conditions to be seen.
The new works will be digitally printed onto optically clear vinyl and applied to the glazed window & door screens of 10 ward rooms throughout the building.
The work is being manufactured and installed to my designs by Guardian Window Film.
Tuesday 16th September 2014, Oxford Churchill Hospital, DTU, Cancer Centre I came up to Oxford today to review the installation of the wall-covering artwork along with VGL and the Trust Arts Coordinator, Ruth Charity. The DTU is an oncology & haematology day unit delivering chemotherapy & other cancer related treatments. The staff delivering this service are the most dedicated and hardworking group of people. How they have made time to collaborate and input into this project has been truly brilliant and a pertinent and sharp reminder that projects such as this succeed because of a positive buy in & contribution by staff and stakeholders alike. The work is created around a central core ‘island’ of offices and consulting rooms about which day treatment chemotherapy services are delivered. Most of the chairs and beds face onto this central island, meaning that most patients spend hours at a time over many weeks or even years staring at dull, blank walls, during treatment, rather than out of the windows behind them, which incidentally are too high to see through. A concept approach was developed to change this dull & monotonous view into a contemplative and softly illuminated abstract vista, interrupted by the suggested shadows of overhanging branches and foliage with dappled light breaking through.