Digital art by Susan Collins installed at Charing Cross Hospital
Digital art by Susan Collins installed at Charing Cross Hospital
22 May 2017
Images from Collins’ Wembury & Woolacombe (2015-6) series are the latest art works to be installed at the hospital, where they’ll be enjoyed by patients and staff in the Acute Medical Unit. The works focus on the North and South Devon coast, where Collins recorded the view across a whole year.
Each image was constructed line by line over the time it takes for the tide to go in or out and accumulated to form an archive of the year, from which these prints are a small selection.
Susan Collins commented: “I am delighted to have these works installed in Charing Cross hospital. As well as being about healing and caring, hospitals, for patients and their visitors, are often about time and waiting. These works are also, in a different way, about time, with both time and memory embedded into the images. They also provide a connection with nature, the coast, the outside beyond the city, the hospital ward, the corridors.”
The charity is a keen advocate of art in hospitals and manages a collection of over 2000 art works at the five Trust hospitals. A 2014 survey carried out by the charity revealed that 69% of patients credited the art collection with making them feel more relaxed in the hospital environment.
Zinka Zecevic, Occupational Therapist at the Acute Medical Unit said of the works: “The art has transformed the appearance of the ward. It was a unique experience to be able to visit and speak to the artist and have access to her work and have the opportunity to select the pieces from a much wider portfolio.”
Susan Collins is currently Professor of Fine Art and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. She’s been a practitioner in the field of new and emerging media art since the late 1980’s. Her work is held in many public collections, including the Government Art Collection and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.
