Andy Parsons, Artist-in-Residence Sligo University Hospital, Commissioned by The Model

Having completed a year long Artist in Residency for The Model, Home of The Niland Collection at Sligo University Hospital I am now showing the resulting work in an exhibition called  Patience

To find out more about the project visit https://patience.ie/ which is the condensed realisation of a year of conversations between Dr. Richard Davey and Andy Parsons. It has been designed to be a digital environment rather than a conventional exhibition catalogue.The texts that accompany each of the main sections, Touch, Heat, Paint, Drawing and Studio are by Dr. Richard Davey

As part of this residency I worked on the Renal Ward with patients encouraging them to explore their creativity with experiments in painting and drawing. Alongside this I developed a body of drawings, paintings and sculptures.

The Renal Ward was chosen as patients there have to attend regularly and for long periods. Alongside the physical challenges the patients have to contend with boredom and extending an invitation to try an connect with creative activities seemed a logical approach. Working in this environment did however come with some challenges. In preparation for the project I undertook hand hygiene training and thought about art activities and how they relate to infection control. I had some experience of the need to protect people with suppressed immunity from my own experience of looking after my son some years ago. Little did I know when I was beginning to think about these practices that they would come to have such a worldwide significance.

When first inviting patients to try their hand at painting I gave everyone their own little watercolour pan, complete with its own extendable brush. After I had made sure everyone on the ward who wanted to take part was working happily I found some time to start making my now work with the same materials. Working with these small watercolour pans I tried to record the life of the Renal ward, often using images based on suggestions from the patients. It is important that the works capture something of the complexity of the environment and the challenges faced by patients on the ward.

The first few weeks of the residency were spent building a rapport and finding ways round the restrictions of the environment. The patients explored areas such as mark making and colour mixing and enjoying developing new skills. I took photographs to use as starting points for these paintings – using subjects such as clouds and the sea. The results were beautiful, with each person responding to the materials in their own personal way.

With the closure of the Hospital to visitors and non essential staff in Spring 2020 I had to adapt my approach and  started to explore the idea of using my drawings as starting points for sculptures in plaster, and for giant paintings.

The Model provided me with a studio, which used to experiment and explore ideas in, while I waited to go back to working with patients again.

The sculptures rough appearance is a deliberate attempt to evoke the spontaneous mark making of rapid drawing and sketching in watercolour. The figures are composites of many fleeting observations rather than specific people.

The works reference and draw inspiration from the remarkable sequence of paintings and drawings made by Barbara Hepworth in the 1940s, of medical staff working in the then newly formed NHS.

These works celebrated the professionalism and teamwork of health workers, and captured their sense of shared purpose and compassion. I am striving to make work that evokes the same sense of social solidarity and optimism.

Commissioned by The Model, home of The Niland Collection
Research & Development supported by Creative Ireland, Sligo, 2019
Residency funded by the Arts Council, 2020