Great Ormond Street Hospital
10 February – 10 April 2016
Under the Microscope is an arts research project conceived and led by artist Sofie Layton. The work explores how children and their families interpret medical information and understand disease, and culminates in a series of exhibitions and installations made in partnership with clinicians, researchers, patients and their families at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).
Unique – Exhibition documenting artist-led participatory workshops, involving young people living with cardiac conditions and congenital heart disorders, and related artworks. Main entrance of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Making the Invisible Visible – A series of multidisciplinary artworks about the heart, including textile panels, 3D medical heart prints, and sculptures that translate some medical aspects of cardiology. Created in conversation with the cardiovascular imaging team, clinicians, parents and patients on Bear Cardiac Ward, young adults attending transition clinic and their parents.
Institute of Child Health, Winter Garden Gallery Space.
In Isolation – A sensory installation, which explores the visual landscape and intricacies of the immune system, and the experiential reality of a young patient undergoing gene therapy. The GOSH Friends’ Garden Access to exhibits is strictly through guided tours only.
To book please email: gocreate@gosh.nhs.uk
Booking essential.
Open 6–20 March 2016
“It’s very difficult being in isolation for such a long time, and on top of that you have the never-ending worry for your child. You’re so immersed in the medical world of treatment and symptoms – questioning life and death. You feel trapped physically and mentally. The art project enabled me to break out of the routine – escapism, being creative again. I felt really inspired and excited to try different art techniques, which I continued to use in my hospital room. I found it cathartic. My son has double relapse leukemia, and looking at microscopic images of the cells that keep trying to kill him was emotive. They should look unpleasant and sinister, but they have extraordinary beauty. I like that paradox, and the puzzle of how an artist could represent that contrast.”
Parent on Robin Ward, GOSH
“Working with an artist provides the scientist with a new avenue of research, paved in the artist’s vision. It’s like arriving in a foreign country and suddenly realising you can speak the language. There is a sense of possibility and novelty. When working together, the artist is not just an outlet for a scientific concept, embellishing it or simplifying it in order to make it more accessible. Her work is complementary, adding form, colour, texture, and above all narrative to a concept, which is often abstract or technical. When the scientific and artistic approaches come together, the layering becomes much more precious.”
Giovanni Biglino PhD, University College London / GOSH
“Being artist in residence at GOSH for the past 12 months has been an incredible privilege, and transformative for my practice. The generosity and creativity of parents, patients, scientific and medical staff has enabled me to begin to make the invisible world of disease both visible and tangible. Medical and artistic approaches may sometimes seem worlds apart, but I’ve found an equivalence – as an artist – in the materialisation of processes like MRI scans and 3D printing, and in the embroidering and embossing the minutiae of cellular structures. Exploring this has helped me to physically mediate the complexity of illness. As an artist, I bring a haptic understanding of materiality and making, and what I feel I end up doing is holding these two conversations and acting as a lightning rod that transforms them into a series of works that explore the interface between the medical and patient worlds. A year ago, I had no idea what would emerge from the conversations or where the work would lead.
I hope the installations give a small insight into the amazing world and people that I encountered. Thank you to all the clinicians, scientists and staff for their patience – but mostly to the parents and young people for their time, and for trusting me with their stories.” Sofie Layton
Under the Microscope was created in partnership with GO Create! and the National Institute of Health Research Great Ormond Street Biomedical Research Centre.
The project is kindly funded by the Wellcome Trust, National Institute of Health Research Great Ormond Street Biomedical Research Centre, Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
