Loose parts
2016. South Hill Park – 24 screenprinted pillows, cut grass.
During WWII, South Hill Park was the evacuation home of the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital from Margate. As well as treating war-time victims, the hospital specialised in treating patients, including very many children, who were suffering from surgical tuberculosis. Treatment involved being outdoors day and night, those with a diseased spine restricted to a plaster bed, or those with infected joints with splinted limbs. Pre-antibiotic treatments, at that time if the disease abated the best possible outcome was an immobile back or limb - forever seized up into the least worst position.
Commemorating this time in South Hill Park's history, the outdoor installation of 'beds' and pillows also celebrated that children in this country are largely now free of this disease. Children are free to play with 'loose parts' both in the sense of their limbs, and in the free-play sense of Simon Nicolson's 'Theory of Loose Parts'.
'Loose Parts' was created for the Engage With Art Festival - a 2-day festival of visual art held on 2-3 July 2016, involving 30 artists for an audience of over 2,100. Curated by Janet Curley Cannon and myself, supported by South Hill Park and funded by Arts Council England.
During WWII, South Hill Park was the evacuation home of the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital from Margate. As well as treating war-time victims, the hospital specialised in treating patients, including very many children, who were suffering from surgical tuberculosis. Treatment involved being outdoors day and night, those with a diseased spine restricted to a plaster bed, or those with infected joints with splinted limbs. Pre-antibiotic treatments, at that time if the disease abated the best possible outcome was an immobile back or limb - forever seized up into the least worst position.
Commemorating this time in South Hill Park's history, the outdoor installation of 'beds' and pillows also celebrated that children in this country are largely now free of this disease. Children are free to play with 'loose parts' both in the sense of their limbs, and in the free-play sense of Simon Nicolson's 'Theory of Loose Parts'.
'Loose Parts' was created for the Engage With Art Festival - a 2-day festival of visual art held on 2-3 July 2016, involving 30 artists for an audience of over 2,100. Curated by Janet Curley Cannon and myself, supported by South Hill Park and funded by Arts Council England.