Fresco

Permanent evocative light installation projecting onto the ceiling of a children's hospital

Commissioned in 2004 by the King’s Fund, Fresco is a permanent installation for Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. Working in close consultation with patients and recovery theatre nurses and technicians, Cotterrell developed a new work for post-operative patients. An ever-changing light installation projected onto the ceiling of the recovery room, Fresco was designed to avoid compositional repetition.

Discussions between Cotterrell and a focus group of long-term young patients informed the artwork. The children waking up in the recovery room found themselves staring at a ceiling consisting of white tiles. Cotterrell spoke with them about what they would like to look at in an attempt to understand the way they perceive their post-operative surroundings. The patients’ first reaction was that they would like to see a beach scene. But after further questioning it became clear that the beach scene was a visual representation of a more abstract feeling when looking at the vastness of the sea, trying to comprehend the sublime view which can be so intensely felt by children before they develop a more complex visual vocabulary.

Materials:

LED rgb Fixtures and Solid State Computer