Public Art - Hospital Beds

The site on which the Deerubbin Centre now stands has multiple meanings in the cultural landscape, including convict barracks, hospital and contemporary art space.

Hospital Beds was devised as part of a strategy to make the site a focus for community life, addressing the following themes:

The importance of Hawkesbury's history and heritage.
The natural environment.
The use of the space as a focal point for a number of community groups/institutions as well as the wider community, visitors and tourists.
The use of the space for rest and refreshment of body and spirit.
The importance of attracting children and young people and of helping them to form positive associations between play, art, books, mental stimulation and relaxation

Photos: Greg Stonehouse.

Expressions of interest were called for, and thirty submissions were received. A selection team set up for the purpose invited three artists to attend an interview by the selection team. At the interview the artists were invited to discuss their work and provide an initial response to the site. Two artists were asked to develop a concept proposal, for which they were paid $3,000 each. This phase of the process was assisted by a $5,000 grant from the NSW Ministry for the Arts (Visual Arts Board). The winning submission was that prepared by Milestone Art for a sculpural piece based on the theme of hospital bed ends, standing off the vertical and connected by a geometric pattern of wires.
The artwork explores the notions of shelter, confinement and compassion that were undercurrents during the various occupations of the site. The bed ends are figurative gestures in space, each pulling back from their partner until the whole sculpture topples and is held precariously by the threads. Although the site is loaded with rich histories, the artwork should add a contemporary layer to the existing and future fabric, and articulate the space dramatically from various perspectives of sight and time. It is inclusive yet powerful, accessible and thought provoking.
Mist envelopes the artwork at scheduled times. In summer it functions as a cooling agent (summer temperatures are usually 35 degrees +) as well as being an integral element of the sculpture, reminiscent of the curtain traditionally drawn round the hospital bed at certain times.
The pattern of the wire is silhouetted on the ground as the sun shifts above. The artwork becomes a drawing of shadow geometry. The wire refers to the rope of the convict hammocks, the coiled springs of mattresses and tautly links the tenuous body space between ends.
There is a dialogue between ends, the head and the feet, compassion and confinement, quarantine and cure, and the contemporary that is reverential to the voices of the past.

Contact details
Hawkesbury City Council
02 4560 4444 (ph)
02 4560 4400 (fax)
council@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au


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