Nursing & Healthcare News
Hospital of Emotions
An exuberant art installation at the former St. Vincent’s
In a hospital room, a tree log lies like a torso on a bed, hooked up to dozens of multicolored IV bags.
In another, quilted arms in shades of orange and pink cover the walls and reach down from the ceiling.
Clocks line the walls of another, alongside photographs and painted scenes from a patient’s life. Each room represents an artist’s interpretation of an emotion (in these examples: resilience, joy, and fear).
These exhibits are part of Hospital of Emotions, an immersive art installation currently being staged at the former St. Vincent Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles. Seventy artists from around the world have come together to create eight emotional “departments,” including Resilience, Joy, Sadness, Hope, Love, Anger, Fear, and Gratitude. The results are stunning, exuberant, and sometimes disturbing.
More than a visual experience, the exhibits invite viewers to muse and question. Does a hospital room filled with flowers represent joy, or is the bed meant to resemble a casket topped with a funeral bouquet?
As one nurse attending the exhibit observed, “These are the same emotions everyone has, but in the hospital, they are magnified.” Learn more at HospitalofEmotions.com. If you intend to visit, be advised that the last day is Wednesday, September 30
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