Rowena Dring

Think of Paradise, 2004

Fabric appliqué
King George V Basement, St Bartholomew’s Hospital

Dring uses a traditional form of needlework (fabric appliqué) to create illusionary utopias and Gardens of Eden in a never-ending quest for Arcadia. She draws inspiration from photographs she has taken as a tourist, or images borrowed from travel guides, picture postcards and calendars. At Barts, Dring invited hospital staff, patients and visitors to send her an image of their favourite landscape. She received hundreds of images, many of which showed tropical paradises, lakes or waterfalls. Dring decided to work with a photograph of a tropical paradise where light filters through the trees and plays across the water’s surface. As part of this commission, Dring also worked with staff, patients and members of the Breast Care Support Group in a series of open workshops, where people helped to cut out the hundreds of fabric shapes that have been stitched together to make the work.

Dring was born in Wellingborough in 1970 and educated at Chelsea College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths College, London

The award winning Barts Heath Breast Care Centre is considered a pioneering example of public art commissioning in a healthcare setting. A series of site specific commissions from leading artists are integrated with the architecture, to produce moments of contemplation; creating spaces that positively encourage distraction and discussion.

The art programme was curated for Vital Arts by Theresa Bergne of Field Art Projects, and took as its starting point the feedback that visitors would rather be ‘anywhere, but here.’ To this end, the expression of landscape explored by all the art installed offers an element of ‘transportation,’ offering viewers the opportunity to think about being ‘somewhere else,’ if only in mind.