Local artists are excited to see new artwork filling the white space on the walls of the new dental hospital. Swedish artist Jacob Dahlgren has produced Constructing a New World to display at the site. The work was commissioned by Vital Arts, a group set up to bring more art into the Royal London hospital and its sister organisations in St Barts Trust.
Jacob Dahlgren has a wide ranging practice exploring the abstract patterns found in the “everyday” and includes the ongoing photographic series of him with strangers wearing stripes. In his first permanent commission in the UK, Dahlgren has designed a large-scale installation for the new Royal London Dental Hospital that takes the vibrant colours of the local Whitechapel area as its starting point.
An architectural drawing in space; the work consists of a large wall drawing and a 3D drawing of neon bright aluminium rods. Combined they create a complex abstract work where the shadows coalesce to become part of the composition.
This dynamic commission is part of a wider arts strategy for the hospital that aims to improve the hospital environment for both patients and staff. Over one million people attend the six hospitals within the Trust each year, looked after by 15,000 members of staff. Vital Arts see these important civic spaces as ideal places to introduce a new audience to contemporary art.
“Constructing a New World” has been fabricated by Luke Morgan, Supergroup London.
Jacob Dahlgren was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1970. He has exhibited his art in the Galleri Andrehn Schiptjenko; in the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle USA; in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; in the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; and at the Contemporary Art Center/MoMA in New York. Dahlgren represented Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.
Vital Arts is the arts organisation for Barts Health NHS Trust. It is charitably funded to deliver quality arts programmes for the well-being of patients, visitors, staff and the wider east London community. It commissions artists, musicians and performers to help improve the hospital environment for patients. It manages two art galleries which “bring the outside in”, and an extensive contemporary art collection. It forges links with the hospital community through a diverse programme of artists’ residencies, public art commissions and arts education projects.
Vital Arts was founded in 1996 and has grown into one of the UK’s leading arts and health organisations, with an international reputation for producing pioneering arts programmes that transform the experience of being in hospital for patients and staff.
Learn more about Jacob Dahlgren at http://jacobdahlgren.com and about Vital Arts at www.vitalarts.org.uk.