Art Shows !! at the Homerton Hospital

The Homerton Hospital [http://www.homerton.nhs.uk/ ] has a service NOT advertised on its website, nor within the hospital.

YES, IT’S EXHIBITIONS AND ART SHOWS AMONGST THE NURSES AND PATIENTS . . .

Now, when I was recently a patient there in the ACU (Acute Care Unit, home to 35 boisterous individuals, and as many staff around the clock) I felt the need to vacate my comfortable bed from time to time, and wander the building and grounds. A quiet corridor near the Main Entrance has the Chapel. It’s very restful indeed, having lovely wooden pews, prayer books, indirect lighting and quiet, it is a wonderful contemplative environment. BUT, along the quiet corridor outside the Chapel (thirty metres long) on either side there is a beautiful collection of beautiful photographs.

How to describe these ? They look like a superior sort of holiday snap, all taken by various different bods working at this hospital, the nurses and doctors and whom-ever. It looks like the photos have been submitted, chosen and stuck into frames with glass, some with mounts. The cumulative effect is wonderment. These aren’t by one person, but by lots of people. This exhibition must have a theme, but I haven’t yet found anyone who can tell me what the theme might be (perhaps ‘faces’, or ‘places’, or’ holidays’, who knows ??) Very uplifting, and I gazed at them more than once during my stay. To see these, you just walk in, go to the ‘Chapel corridor’, and you’re there. I have another look every time I’ve been back, to revel in the beauty of the amateur photographers’ images.

Now, an Art Curator works at this hospital, and he looks after the considerable number of proper works of art littered about the hospital. Homerton Trust didn’t apparently buy all these; some are gifts, some are on loan, etc. As I walked about the place, up and down corridors and outside when it wasn’t raining (Londoners know it was a record for maximum rain and no sunshine at all last month) I encountered statues in courtyards (lovely, bronze, life-sized), urns in gardens, gazebos here, there and everywhere, paintings and prints and ceramics works liberally distributed up and down the many, many corridors. There is yet more artwork on the stair landings. Altogether this brought a sense of lightness and charm to what for many visitors and (temporary) residents must be a forbidding place, the hospital.

Saving the best for last, the PROPER exhibition . . . I accidentally met the Art Curator on my last day. I enthused to him about the corridor exhibition (the ‘holiday photos’, NOT the usual prints and paintings which look like they live there). He said ‘Have you seen the exhibit in the Education Building ?” Well, I had to say ‘No’, because that’s ‘off limits’ to mere patients; the doctors go there for lunch, and for lectures. As a bona-fide ‘visitor’ however (sign in at the front desk, get a name tag and go to the Education Building) you’re straight in there.

A retired cardiologist, Mr Tunstall-Podde, has a collection of framed and mounted images over two floors of the naturally-lit common space. It’s all photos, some in black and white, and many in colour. The older ones (from the 1950’s) and the more recent are of children and landscapes, some in London and the South-East, some from abroad, especially Belize, C. A.. The majority are macro-shots (close-up’s) of insects. Now some may say “Euch !! Who wants to see ‘life and death on a small scale’ ?” But looking at the clarity of these images, their composition, and the breadth of his images on display, it engenders wonder and awe. If you find yourself in the neighbourhood (London E9 – loads of buses, and London Overground rail)) do go. There’s a visitors’ book; myself and my friends have been, and we’ve signed the book with appreciative comments.
His show is on until November. He has an e-mail to which you may write.

Yes, I know, you're not supposed to enjoy your stay in hospital. What can I say ? I was in a 'well-appointed with lovely artworks' hospital . . .