Matron Bell (2008). Medium/Materials: variable
Size: variable
No. in Series: 4
Work produced during an Artist Residency and Commission at University Hospital Lewisham 2008/9 in celebration of 60 years of the NHS. The brief was to find a way of engaging with staff, patients and other users of the hospital and to produce a piece of work that was relevant to the site. The final installation was based on a figure who emerged from the hospital archives.
Marjorie Bell MBE was matron at the hospital from 1949-1970 years, which would have seen the formation and development of many changes of the NHS. She was clearly a major figure throughout the hospital and the local community appearing in many pictures of many significant moments for both the hospital and many of the patients, visitors and staff that were part of the environment. What is interesting is that this woman such a large figure was on the verge of drifting into anonymity by the passage of time just like many of the people in the photographs who figure in the archives of the hospital. The work is now on permanant display.