Proposal for the UCLH Garden
clay models of the animals
CONCEPT
To undergo Proton Beam Therapy is to leave for a moment the familiar world. The patient enters a hi-tech environment so alien to their everyday experience they might as well be an astronaut on a mission to Mars.
Afterwards, it is as though they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and have to reacquaint themselves with the things of this world. In this somewhat shell-shocked spirit they find the Apothecary’s Garden.
The Apothecary’s Garden is a place of healing. It is a haven of peace after Proton Beam Therapy and it contains plants from which to make medicine. But its greatest potential to heal lies in the fact it is a garden. A garden in which there are things like plants to help the patient remember the world they know.
We would like to build on this idea and bring a little more of the natural world around us into this place. Plants belong with animals, and we have in mind a series of animal sculptures carved in stone and set into the wall of each planter. We hope, through the familiarity of our chosen animals and a softness in the design of our sculptures, to enhance the soothing and therapeutic effect of the Apothecary’s Garden.
We would love to develop a series of hand hold pieces - celebrating the tactile nature of these sleeping animals.
More information about how this project developed to follow.