Piecing Together, 2011

A series of workshops working with hospital users were held to deconstruct and reconstruct medieval tile patterns based on those found in Barking Abbey, acknowledging the links between these two ‘institution’ like buildings, from the healing qualities to the reflective personnel roles.

Participants created repeating patterns from their own printing blocks and the finished artworks were re-worked on computer to create a series of brightly coloured artworks. Each of these were printed onto translucent material and applied to 10mm thick clear acrylic.

The images have been produced twice and the acrylic cut into nine sections forming the basis for the classic ‘slide puzzle’ game, one artwork is in it’s completed image form the other offers a mixed up image.

The slide puzzle as an object makes reference to our journey through a hospital, arriving with certain things out of place or out of sorts and in need of correcting and un-muddling. In addition as a decorative object within the hospital environment it encourages passive interaction which then offers distraction during waiting periods.

A second series of works ‘marbles’ applied across corridors and in stairwells sees a circular cut out of the patterns formed into small groups which work with signage for wayfinding.

An additional part of the commission was to create vinyl floor designs. These were based on a combination of shapes derived from the medieval tiles merging with the suggestion of the River Roding. The shapes lead to exit points within entrance areas.