Milly Peck has recently completed a commission through Vital Arts at Mile End Hospital, London, UK, for Barts Health NHS Trust, funded by Barts Charity.
This project, titled 'Relief in Shadow Play', takes the form of an outdoor mural and indoor murals in conjunction with wall-based sculptures across the Max Caplin Unit which specialises in respiratory conditions. Influenced by 19th Century woodblock prints of Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige the work revolves around using imaginary shapes cast from abstracted hands. To Peck, hospitals can be perceived as spaces of sterility but so often the need for touch or haptic interaction is essential both as an ethos and a physical reality of comfort and healthcare. This was emphasised with the global pandemic where visitation and contact was limited within the hospital environment, therefore the reference to hands and thinking about the playful physicality of this activity of shadow play is a potential relief or antidote.
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