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Simon Robertshaw
Trace Elements
Six identical metal-framed beds are arranged in a row, their stained and tatty mattresses carrying a visceral trace of their former occupants. At the foot of each bed, where you might expect to find a patient’s hospital notes, sits a video monitor playing footage of patient interviews. The beds and video tapes are some of the discoveries made by artist Simon Robertshaw whilst documenting some of Britain’s last remaining Victorian county asylums, buildings that are now derelict. Over a series of visits, Robertshaw unearthed a number of objects including document files and tapes, recorded in the 1970s, of interviews with asylum patients. Robertshaw’s installation works over the last ten years have been informed by the history of medicine, psychiatry and genetics, and have frequently incorporated historical documents and other ‘found’ objects with video and digital material.
A Film and Video Umbrella touring exhibition in association with Open Eye, Liverpool.
Free