Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Fairfield General Hospital, Bury and Gallery Oldham, Oldham
15 April - 30 May
Reviewed by: Rob Vale
The hospital environment is part workplace, part public space; its purpose alters depending on why one is there. But what type of artwork has worth within this setting, and how is it affected by its clinical surroundings?
‘Mind Where You Look’ at Fairfield General Hospital Bury and Gallery Oldham considers these issues. The exhibitions formed part of a study by Mary Grehan in association with Lime comparing people’s experience of viewing art in a hospital with that of a gallery. Fifteen diverse works by contemporary artists were displayed for three weeks within the sprawling hospital, and then transferred to the gallery. In Gallery Oldham the works sat comfortably and quietly on clean white boards, their neutral surroundings allowing them to be considered individually or in relation to their neighbours. In the hospital Martin Nash’s Free Radicals nestled in next to healthcare posters and dirty laundry carts, and John Hamilton’s The Storyteller held its own above a vibrant children’s play table, far away from the comfort of Gallery Oldham. Other works by Ghislaine Howard and Katja Hock take the hospital as subject matter. On the ward these pieces resonate with new depth, as artists’ mirrors on the works’ new found homes; in the gallery they shrink, overshadowed by larger, brighter works.
Reaction to the exhibitions has been gathered through questionnaires, and at Fairfield it seems that the closer to referencing the hospital a work is, the less ‘liked’ it becomes. This may say more about the viewer’s experience of hospitals than of art. In the end it comes down to choice. In a gallery we choose to visit the work, in a hospital we visit for altogether different reasons, and must view whatever we are presented with. Strong creative work, like some of those shown, can make that visit a better one.
For further information contact Lime on 0161 256 4389.
Writer detail:
Rob Vale
Venue detail:
Gallery Oldham
Oldham Cultural Quarter, Greaves Street, Oldham OL1 1AL
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