Jeremy Deller, Rana Begum, Conrad Shawcross and Shezad Dawood are among a group of leading artists to contribute works to 100 staff respite rooms in east London NHS hospitals.
The artworks will adorn the walls of new rest spaces which are being created in response to the current crisis, in St Bartholomew’s, Royal London Hospital, Whipps Cross, Mile End and Newham University Hospital.
Created together with Vital Arts – the arts and health service for Barts Health NHS Trust – London artist Dawood and Modern Forms, the #100NHSRooms project aims to further the mission to support wellbeing for patients and hospital works through the arts.
So far, scores of artists have donated works to appear on these walls, with Jake and Dinos Chapman, Catherine Yass, Anne Hardy, Django Hernández and Yelena Popova also contributing.
Consultant Respiratory Physician at Newham University Hospital, Dr. Rory McDermott, says: “#100NHSRooms has much less to do with paintings in a staff room, and much more to do with what remains when the world is rapidly changing around you. The project will afford frontline staff a few moments to take stock, absorb the art and ponder the questions that it raises before returning to patient care – like a child hiding in a wardrobe getting ready to come out again.”
