Ilana Halperin
A Geological meeting between I.H and H.I.(An Archaeology of Barts), 2010
Watercolour, graphite on fabriano paper, etched caithness stone
Cancer Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital
The artist has a particular interest in geology, and she approached her commission for the Cancer Centre by creating a narrative visual “geological cross section” of the hospital’s history. After consulting the Barts archives, talking to patients, and exploring the hospital’s historical buildings, she excavated stories, objects and archival images.
The initials in the title refer to the artist herself, I.H, and a former patient treated at Barts whose initials are H.I. Halperin has said about this artwork, “the intention is to create a warm interruption in the new hospital environment by installing a collection of related material about Barts that facilitate a space for potential discovery, and expeditions of the imagination.”
Ilana Halperin’s work explores the relationship between geology and daily life. By connecting personal events and human histories to deep geological time, she allows for a space to think about our place within a vast continuum from a more intimate perspective. To articulate a corporeal sense of geological time, Halperin forms sculptures using natural geological processes – from geothermal pools to high velocity calcifying springs. Her work deals with geological intimacy and vivacity, and the uncanny knowledge that something as inert and certain as stone was once liquid, airborne, alive.
