Gaia Persico
Hotel Series, 2015
Biro pen on found hotel branded notepaper
Early Diagnosis Centre, Mile End Hospital
Gaia Persico drew or sketched the cities she encountered through her previous ‘day job’ as an airline stewardess. She describes these works as “snapshots of a very specific time.”
Whether picturesque or prosaic, Persico used the single given view from her hotel room as a consistent frame. Through that window she explored the limited visual space of each global city she encountered — whether Nairobi, Islamabad, Ireland, Shanghai, Qatar, Kuwait, Mumbai or Los Angeles.
These sketches, decorating the corridors within the Early Diagnosis Centre and visible from the main hospital entrance, aim to capture the small details, the ephemeral, and reveal the inherent differences, as well as common features, that the artist finds around the world.
About the artist
Gaia Persico, who lives in London, was born in Italy and studied at Wimbledon School of Art. She has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad, including at the Royal Academy of Arts, Jerwood Space, Pitzhanger Manor Gallery, G/39, Gasworks, as well as in venues in Rome, New York, Tokyo, Istanbul, and Wrocław.