Horticulture in Excelsis

"Horticulture in Excelsis", was a description about the Victorian nurseryman William Bull, of King's Road Chelsea, made by fellow nurseryman and eminent orchidologist, Benjamin Williams. 

Such an apt & beautiful thing to say about dedication and nurturing - and fitting as an inspiration for the amazing work being carried out at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

My artworks for the 10 internal windows of the Ron Johnson Ward Conservatory, commissioned by CW+ charity and Saskia Delman will be installed next week. 
“Ron Johnson is a highly specialised HIV/ Oncology/ Dermatology ward consisting of 19 en-suite side rooms. We are a tertiary referral unit for HIV and HIV related malignancy”.

The theme revolves around and explores the history of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Fulham Road site at Little Chelsea, but also of renowned and historical gardens and plant nurseries in the locality.

The parallels between horticulture and healthcare are of great interest to me, and nowhere exemplified in more focus than Chelsea Physic Garden, a short walk from the Fulham Road site. 

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftsbury had a house on this very spot at Little Chelsea in 1700 planted 'with Fruit Trees and every kind of Vine'. Exotic plant nurseries abounded on the King's Road in the 19th Century and the world famous Chelsea Physic Garden and the lost gardens of 16th Century Beaufort House, the home of Sir Thomas More both but a short walk away. 

The legacy of the site is also referenced via architectural detail from the original St George's Union Infirmary, St Stephen's Hospital and the earlier Westminster Hospital known as the Hospital in the Sanctuary, and it's later 1930's iteration at St John's Gardens, before both hospitals merged at the current site on the Fulham Road as Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

The artworks are created to be seen from within the conservatory space, which can be used by all patients, staff, and visitors, and from each of the individual patient rooms, where privacy is most important. The patient has control over the internal blind, incorporated into the double-glazed panel and can therefore control how much or how little of the individual artwork they wish to see. Selected motifs and elements of the design are retained within the patient room side, whilst the full version showing all ten windows is fully on display within the conservatory.

The work has been manufactured and installed by VGL, long time collaborators of mine.