Public art in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Our Arts in Health program brightens areas of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) through public artworks and art installations to improve the health and wellbeing of the Hospital community.
Two artists have been busy creating some amazing public artworks in the Hospital space.
Laura Wills
Adelaide Artist, Laura Wills, often collaborates with others when she creates art. She’s interested in creating works that are communicative in nature and connect us to the environment.
Recently, Laura has been working on Connected – a collaborative artwork with contributions from patients, families and staff that form the Adolescent Ward community at the WCH.
Laura Wills working with patients to create the collaborative artwork.
With support from our Arts in Health program, Laura and Play Therapist Kylie have been inviting participants to provide photos, drawings and imagery that will be tiled together to create an artwork that provides a sense of belonging to the Adolescent Ward space.
Laura has held a series of workshops with patients on the ward that stimulated and inspired their creativity to make images to contribute towards the group piece.
Stay tuned to see the final artwork which will create a connection to nature and the outside world, improving the social and emotional wellbeing of patients.
Wendy Dixon-Whiley
Wendy Dixon-Whiley is a visual artist based in the Adelaide Hills best known for her street art style mural work. Her influences trace back to 80s street art and 90s pop culture, with her practice incorporating drawing, painting, installation and experimental methods.
Wendy has been painting live in the hospital corridor to create the two magnificent wall murals, allowing patients and families to see the mural evolve over time.
Wendy Dixon-Whiley painting the green mural.
The first mural is a detailed and immersive reptile themed design to connect with a previous artwork ‘Gizzy the Lizard’. The mural imagery has been created to be calming and visually engaging, but not too overstimulating.
Located near the Allied Health services, outside the ground floor lifts, this whimsical mural is entertaining and amusing for children and adults. An element of challenge encourages children to search for smaller creatures while exploring the mural.
Wendy’s yellow mural.
The second mural is located near Adolescent Ward and has been designed to have a more mature concept with a street art edge.
It consists of yellow shapes, overlaid with bold, black brushstrokes, painted live for the patients to see the processes involved in creating mural artworks. The figures aren’t recognizable as anything in particular, which encourages the viewer to use their imagination about their meaning.
Wendy says, “There has been nothing more lovely than hearing kids voicing their delight at these colourful additions to the Hospital.”
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