A collaborative mosaic series with Nottingham artist, Annie Mae Ditchfield, to give Critical Care staff the opportunity to reflect on their experiences of working throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The mosaics are predominantly made up of recycled and kindly donated tiles from Awn Surface Design Studio (Sneinton), CDT Tiles (Lenton), B&Q (Riverside) as well as from Nottingham community residents.
The piece that you see here at City Hospital is a photograph of the one produced by staff in the Critical Care Department, City Hospital.
The project produced three pieces:
Piece 1: Support
The central image depicts a staff member being supported by another member of the team in the height of the pandemic. Surrounding is a series of tiles portraying factors that staff reported helped them get through this period including ; family, talking, pets, exercise and duty alongside single word responses summarising their experiences on receded layers
Piece 2: Strength
The central image illustrates two staff members standing strong in unity despite challenges faced. Staff members designed the left figure to have a red sore nose to reflect the physical marks left on their faces from PPE and for both figures to have ‘blurry PPE goggles’ that would steam up and be difficult to see through. Surrounding the central image is a series of square tiles visualising factors that helped staff members get through the pandemic including ; "getting outside, seeking professional help and kindly donated food
Piece 3: Teamwork
A series of interlocking hands signifying the teamwork on the Critical Care Wards throughout the pandemic. Surrounding the central hands are tiles to reflect staff’s feedback on what helped them get through the pandemic including; switching the news off, music, hugs and walking.
Melina Monhart - Inspired by the artist’s desire to capture the relationship that we have with nature, how it affects our emotions and who we are.
Melina or ‘Lina Hart’ is an inspirational artist, originally from the north of Transylvania, raised by her paternal grandfather who was the first and main artistic influence in her life, and who was a master church artist, leaving behind a work of over 60 churches.
His work sites in churches were where she had her very first encounters with the magic of the creative process.
In Lina’s practice, painting is a secret path to invite the viewer into her visions, where with what is being intuitively transmitted, the viewer re-experiences the synapses of her emotional and spiritual mind-sphere. She likes to think of her paintings as ambassadors of light.
As part of the Arts Trails Project, a writer visited Nottingham Hospitals
to offer creative writing activities with staff, patients, visitors and volunteers.
Lots of the artworks on the Arts Trails have poems and other writing made
from the activities in these sessions. A ‘story circle’ has also been written,
inspired by the experience of spending time in the hospital. It gives a flavour
of a day here, told through fictional snippets and tales.
The ‘story circle’ goes round a day from morning to night to morning again.
You can enter it anywhere and the end of one story will give you the
invitation to the next.
All names/content in the story circle is entirely fictional - enter it HERE
This fabric collage is a picture of City Hospital, made by an unknown artist or artists. The shape of the cars suggest it was made in the 1960’s or 70’s but we don’t know much more about it than that. Many of the staff who work here walk miles every day in the course of their jobs up and down the corridors past different artworks.
What do you know about the history of City Hospital?
This City is a Village
This City is a village,
Carrying its history in a horse-drawn cart
Laden with provisions
Heavy with a sense of duty
Men and women with starched collars
Gave their time and money
To help.
Children grew up here,
Lost stories woven in the rough fabric
Of workhouse uniforms
Soldiers clothed in heavy worsted
Carried home from trenches
Offered a place of peace
To heal.
A hospital never stands still,
Thousands of steps taken every day
Wheels turn, moving beds and chairs
Progress being made
There is always someone awake
There is always a hand
To hold.
Comments from staff who walk along these corridors every day:
They took different parts of the hospital and put them together. I like it! It’s green and clean. I see it every morning. I like the blue sky.
I like imagining how the hospital used to be. Back when they horses and carts for delivery and transport. It’s intriguing thinking about the olden days.
I see it when I walk past, every day. It’s always been here, and I’ve worked here forty-four years.
Oh yeah. It’s this place. I can see it, that doorway, it’s just outside.
Things change over the years, but it’s got a character, this hospital. If it was a character it could be Florence Nightingale or a lion, the chief looking after the whole herd.
I’ve never saw this picture before! I’m also so busy, I don’t really look. Oh, it’s here, isn’t it? It’s of here, City. it’s lovely. Is it new?
A series of multiple silkscreen prints by the artist Derrick Greaves, who was one of the most eminent British painters and was extensively represented in museum and public collections.
He initially gained acclaim in the 1950s, when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale along with the other ‘Kitchen-Sink’ painters: Bratby, Middleditch and Smith. However, his work swiftly developed into a more heraldic style that paralleled 1960s Pop Art.
These artworks inspired contributions from staff, patients and visitors, who said what’s special about the city and what they like about living, working or visiting here.
Dear Nottingham ,
Your lions, left and right, provide rides for our children.
Your square, a place to sit and your fair a place to play.
