A Sign of the Times

A collaborative project with Ann Wilkinson.

A Sign of the Times is a valediction of Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital, reflecting on its origin as a workhouse in the 1870’s until it closed as a hospital in 2011.

Throughout its decommission from public service, we explored its history as a place of health and social care, and its eventual redundant position.

It an artist’s perspective of the institution. Developed from research into the archives and studies of the abandoned site, the result of this artist collaboration is a collage which considers the long held social values in healthcare in Britain with the ever advancing developments in medicine and technology.

The derelict space became a metaphor for the physical and psychological nature of the human condition.
The final piece of work comprises 100 individual images – painted (Ann Wilkinson) and photographic with drawings (Anne Guest)– that represent transient impressions, shards of memory, and random observations.

It is on permanent display at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.