Hospital blue.
Artist Linda Greedy selected a number of items from the Maitland Hospital Collection as the subjects for her paintings for the exhibition, A Conspicuous Object - The Maitland Hospital.
Linda Greedy, Hospital Blue, 2021, installed in the exhibition A Conspicuous Object at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, October 2021.
(Clare Hodgins)
“My artwork acknowledges the history of The Maitland Hospital and the integral role it has played for the people of Maitland and the wider Hunter Valley.
While creating the art works I often thought on my long-held belief about the interconnection between individuals and how every person brings something unique to the metaphoric table. I thought about how consistent small acts bring about change. One comment or skill, or one small action, can make a difference.
To capture this sense of many parts working together, I arranged the old and beautifully crafted individual surgical instruments into groups, putting them together to represent the individuals who work with each other to create teams within a hospital. I painted groups of items. I painted single items.
Just like people, some instruments overlap and reappear in different spaces at different times, part of a larger group with a greater purpose. Some instruments appear sinister, while others are more quizzical.
The ‘hospital blue’ of the paintings is my emotional response to the hospital environment, from the blue cotton hospital blankets of my childhood memory through to the hospital scrubs and surgical masks currently worn by medical staff and, more recently, by our whole population.”
Syringes 3 being painted in Linda Greedy’s studio.
Below you can view the individual works that are grouped to connect to each other in the exhibition.
Table of instruments.
oil on timber
76 x 56 cm
Click on an image below to enlarge it and to view all the images as a slideshow. Hover over an image to see the title of the work.
