Tulca Festival of Art - How do you just live ? University Hospital Galway, and Fairgreen building, Nov 2009
Selected to take part in the Tulca Festival of Art in Galway, I undertook a residency at University Hospital, Galway, which involved talking to patients and staff and observing the hospital’s unspoken rules of engagement. From this residence I made two neon installation works, one for the hospital and one for the Fairgreen building.
There was a common theme to patients’ response to the artist question 'what do you miss most about home?' - 'a good cup of tea', 'a soft pillow’, 'silence'. These responses have a correlation to Clarke Gable’s response to Marilyn Munroe's question 'How do you just live?' in 1961 movie - The Misfits - that joy in the face of the adversity can be obtained from the small pleasures of life. Gable’s response to Munroe's question is:
you start by going to sleep
you get up when you feel like it
you scratch yourself
you fry yourself an egg
you see what kind of day it is
you throw stones at a can
you whistle
The Misfits was both Gable and Munroe's last film. Centered on a quartet of social misfits there isn't the traditional happy ending but there is an exceptional message of hope - you can go through some horrendous moments with people and yet come through to the other side.
A screening of The Misfits was held in the Nurses Home, University Hospital, Galway.
How do you just live? Close up
How do you just live/ Installation in Hospital reception
Whistle installed in the Fairgreen Building