Inmates

A sculptural installation and accompanying publication exploring the History of the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

The Clock Tower Gallery, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU, 0114 2715879.

INMATES, an artist's journey through the history of the Northern General Hospital. Price £2.50 + £0.50 pp. To request a copy email enquiries@chrispickupartist.co.uk providing a postal address.

The early history of the Northern General is the history not of a hospital but of a workhouse. Artist Chris Pickup has made an extensive study of this history. His installation Inmates, through historical research, image processing, making and even archaeology, weaves together the lives of the people who once inhabited the building. Pickup’s work is an original blend of site-specific artwork and museum display design, which creates a poignant and highly accessible tribute to the forgotten inmates of the then named Fir Vale Workhouse.

Through Arts Council England funding a publication for the event has been produced. More than an exhibition programme, this publication tells the story of the creation of this work, making the process of developing a conceptual artwork clear and accessible to all who read it.

"I just finished reading your writings about Fir Vale and your work. All I can say is thank-you, there were moments that I was close to tears reading about your discoveries and my grandfather. It sounds like it will be a wonderful piece of art and will certainly tell the story for others to understand. My grandfather spoke very little about his life as a Home Child, he always said he didn't know real love until my grandmother came into his life but even then from my experience he never truly knew how to show it and had a sadness about him always. Once again thank-you I certainly feel that this will honour him and all the other children that spent their childhood within the walls of Fir Vale."

Cheryl Hosaki. Granddaughter of Harold Dodham who was resident in the Children's Home at the Fir Vale in the early 1900's.

The Northern General Hospital is a place of contrasts. The original Fir Vale Workhouse, now the Clock Tower building, still stands as its administrative centre yet a 21st Century hospital has sprouted from, invaded and consumed the old workhouse and early hospital buildings, to the point that in one part an internal corridor has manhole covers in the floor from the time when it was external. These stark contrasts of colour, texture and surface are what characterise the visual experience of being in the Northern General. My practice is site specific, it responds directly to the places I study. Up to this point it has focused on surfaces and how these surfaces record a history of wear and repair and how this history relates to the people who have used and maintained these surfaces. It was with the surfaces that I started this project. Where I ended was very different.

I was lead by my research to focusing on the people who populated the building rather than studying the surfaces. It was the faces of certain key individuals and groups of inmates that was to inform the work. I also identified key themes which ran through workhouse life and these were to provide a conceptual framework.

The first of these was 'institutionalisation by confiscation'. It was common practice to take all personal possessions from incoming inmates, these possessions were stored and only returned if the inmate had the means to leave the workhouse. The title piece Inmates at the head of the stairs makes direct reference to this process.

Another theme was the 'perseverance of spirit'. With the help of Lyn Howsan, historian, I was in contact with the granddaughter of one of the children, Harold Dodham, who was a child in the workhouse in the early 1900s. Through forced emigration to Canada and after enduring years of abuse at the hands of his employer he finally built a life for himself as his extended family was a testament. One of my display cabinets traces his life in images, from marks made on a school yard wall to holding his grandchildren in his arms. A second cabinet within this theme takes a look a workhouse school life and juxtaposes the motto 'There is No Fun Like Work' with a rebellious and slightly sinister skipping poem.

The third and final theme was 'stone breaking'. This led to the employment of a 'metaphoric use of materials' which was key to the entire installation. Stone breaking was commonplace in workhouse life and was seen as a means of 'payment' to use the workhouse facilities. By using brick found on the site, contemporary with with the workhouse, I mimicked the process of stone breaking to create a brick powder which was used throughout the installation to represent the institution. A portrait of one of the key individuals of the institution, Matron Lawson is cast in this brick. I then extended this use of materials by establishing, through an archaeological process, an organic soil or dust which could represent the inmates themselves. A portrait of Harold Dodham is cast in this material and it is also used in Inmates to represent 'mortal remains'.

I was aiming to bring back to the modern Clock Tower building a visual memory of the place it once was. An attempt to re-populate the building with some of the real people who would have walked the wards, offices and corridors as the modern workforce does today. I also felt a responsibility to communicate these ideas with clarity rather than the aloof obscurity that often accompanies conceptual art. To this end I made extensive use of a museum style display format which incorporated text to explain and justify the conceptual connections I was making. To further this end two extra display panels were created. These clarify to the viewing audience the use of brick and dust as described in the previous text, so that these important connections are not lost to the casual viewer.

The production of this work has raised some interesting issues. The use of museum display format, exhibiting in some cases historical information, does create a certain tension between the desire of the artist to express emotional and conceptual content with the viewer's expectation that a museum display cabinet will tell you the facts.

To illustrate this take a look at the two cabinets which tell the children’s stories. I have deliberately evoked an aged backdrop of flaking, cracked paint which feels comfortable for our 21^st Century post Dickensian view of what a workhouse is and should be. However it is historically totally inaccurate. Flaking paint, or even dirt for that matter, would have been non existent in a workhouse as a large proportion of the ‘work’ would have been cleaning and decorating. We see our past through the lens of our present and I, as the artist, have manipulated those preconceptions to communicate with a 21^st Century audience.

This blurring of the boundary between artwork and informative museum display is central to this piece. I believe what I have done is an artwork. Yet the provision of the workings of the conceptual content as an integral part of the piece is not the normal convention. My critics could argue that this dumbs down the experience making it literal or transparent and robs the viewer of the intellectual game of deciphering the work. In answer to this I would say that this installation is site specific and the audience are predominantly the current occupants of the building as opposed to a regular gallery audience. I hope I have been able to allow the voice of the old workhouse to speak and produce a visual experience that communicates effectively, through my conceptual framework, the emotional charge that lay dormant in the fabric of the building and the photographs of the archive.

The above text contains extracts from 'INMATES, an Artists Journey Through the History of the Northern General Hospital'. Price £2.50 + £0.50 pp. To read the full story request a copy by emailing enquiries@chrispickupartist.co.uk providing a postal address.