Place Services were commissioned to manage an artist to create a public artwork. The project was a collaboration between art and science, raising awareness of the research work undertaken within Anglia Ruskin University’s Postgraduate Medical Institute in Chelmsford. It creatively explored the complex processes and considerations of modern medical science.
Anglia Ruskin University’s new flagship research facility - the Postgraduate Medical Institute - is a partnership project involving the NHS acute hospitals, Primary Care Trusts and Mental Health Trusts in Essex, plus Essex County Council, Ramsay and Nuffield Hospitals, The Royal Society for Public Health and the five faculties of Anglia Ruskin University.
In conjunction with the project steering group Place Services appointed artists Heather Barnett. Heather worked collaboratively with faculty staff to develop ‘Proto… Meta… Intra…,’ three separate artworks around a single theme. The challenges presented by this commission - that of representing a range of distinct academic departments accommodated within the Post Medical Institute - was approached with careful research and insight. A subtle reveal takes place when the viewer interacts with the work, which transforms again in response to different times of the day and weather conditions and offers new perspectives on the relationships between the Arts and Medicine.
‘Proto… Meta… Intra…,’ by Heather Barnett with Karl Kjelstrup-Johnson (3D design) and Zanet Belasicova.
Work: Encased in stainless steel and assembled from flat cross-sections, the bodies form a reconfigured whole, their clarity and visibility changing from different viewing positions.
Photographer: Douglas Atfield
Fabricator: Mike Smith Studios