NO ROOM FOR A VIEW

(EXHIBITION) June 27th - August 5th 1995 Hackney Hospital London

Care and Control Project. Organised by Rear Window. A collaboration with Psychiatric Services, Users and The Hackney Arts Initiative. 

There is probably no site in the world where I am so connected. Along with my sister and cousins I was born in the Hackney Hospital. I have visited sick relatives, briefly worked on the Interim ward, watched my grandmothers both of whom worked at one time or another on the wards, die in this place. During the fifties why whole family lived and worked in the shadow of the hospital, to a large extend I am overshadowed by that history. 

At first I tried to make something that was important and profound that meant something that touched all of these nerve endings. It was impossible, I don't know how to make profound work. After many different ideas I ended up making something on the spur of the moment, something that was as real as possible.

The piece I made was a window of a windowless room in a corridor of the hospital. The corridor space was very apt. It was a none-room a place to wait, a passage to rooms behind locked doors. A conduit.