Thanks to Gary Radice for sending further information about the Two Rooms ‘public realm’ work in the Picton Reading Room, Central Library.
“Each of the chairs was altered to reflect the effect of brain injury on individuals.
The participants are part of Making More Sense – A collaboration between TAG (Steve Rooney and Sue Williams of The Artists’ Group) and Mersey Care NHS Trust – I am the community nurse working in the field of brain injury who is the lead for Mersey Care in this instance.
Mario invited TAG and ourselves to contribute to his piece.
We were thrilled to get the chance to work with the artists.
Several of the participants were also involved with Making Sense at The Conservation Centre last year which you reviewed in your 2005 Blog.
https://www.artinliverpool.com/blogarch/2005/03/making_sense.html
Re the chairs:
The brief by Mario to TAG and the participants was that each chair had to have 6 buttons on it, an ash tray and a glass holder. (You may not be able to see these on some of the chairs because of their height from the ground.)
The control room in Chile in the seventies had all these attributes.
A couple of chairs were bought especially but most were found lying idle.
There are roots dangling from one..(“After coming out of hospital my wife told me that if I didn’t get up from the chair I would take root”)
One participant took the chair apart and put it back together with some modifications (It looks OK but if you look closer you will see some imperfections)
One chair has a Beans Tin for an ashtray (“My Warhol 15 mins of fame!”)
It’s a great example of how Creativity in Health can compliment the work we do.”