Community Art Projects Wales

Saint David's Hospital

I was commissioned by the management of the new Saint David's to create a community artwork to show the history, present and future of the hospital. Staff and clinics had come from 4 hospitals that had been closed in Cardiff and been merged to create the new hospital.

The piece depicts certain parts of the histories of each of the 4 hospitals in the squared border. The base of the whole piece is a pictorial representation of the old hospitals one of which was a hospital ship, hence the ship. The largest circle shows the community the hospital serves in all its diversity. Inside this are the different services the hospital offers, from podiatry to dentistry, clerical to housekeeping. The centrepiece of glass mosaic reflects the hospitals part in the NHS as being a small but important cog in the vast machine.

3 schools were involved in the designing and creation of this piece. Also staff, patients and the children from Saint Johns Ambulance service based at the hospital leant a hand or foot in the case of the podiatrists.