Ally Zlatar, Aran Illingworth, Lucy Clayton and Aaron J Little - Art of Caring 2020

Welcome to the Art of Caring 2020. Today we introduce the work of 4 artists who have contributed work to this year's exhibition.... Ally Zlatar, Aran Illingworth, Lucy Clayton and Aaron J Little. The Art of Caring is an annual inclusive international art exhibition celebrating Nurses, Midwives, Carers, and the NHS. Thank you to the School of Nursing at Kingston University for their support.

Aran Illingworth
"Before I embarked on a career in art, I was a trained nurse for 25 years. I worked in psychiatry for a large part of that time, however I left nursing in order to have and bring up my son. I eventually returned to education, and I completed a degree in Applied Arts from the University of Hertfordshire specialising in Textile. It has taken me a few years to establish myself as a textile artist, and in those years I have tried to perfect my work and the techniques that I use. I currently exhibit my work both in the UK and internationally, and alongside producing art.   Portraiture in I have always been fascinated by textiles as they provide a versatile medium through which I can create realistic images, and in my own art I set out to use fabric instead of paint to create a portraits. I love the colour and the texture of textiles and the endless possibilities for manipulation which they offer."
www.aran-i.com

Ally Zlatar
"For myself and many others, we all have needed health care practitioners at some point in our lives. I am truely grateful for the tremendous amount of support and dedication from those who are maning the front lines during these really difficult times. They are truely making a difference and I am so appreciative of the hard work."

Exploring art making as a methodology that suggests the human condition is more complex then it is currently understood, Alexandria (Ally) Zlatar examines, instigates and provokes notions of the individual experience through specifically focusing on philosophical discourse, body image, embodiment, animals & ethics. Zlatar acknowledges there is power within the un-well body and believes there is tremendous value  potency through examining these subjects through the contemporary art lens. Born in Mississauga, Canada. she holds a BFA in Visual Art & Art History from Queen's University & an MLitt Curatorial Practice from the Glasgow School of Art. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctorate of Creative Arts with the University of Southern Queensland. She has been involved in many exhibition creations & has had personal work shown globally. Additionally, she has worked on many curation projects with such galleries as Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Hunterian Art Gallery & Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Art.  She is continuously interpreting, her desire to communicate & facilitate the theoretical concepts of art is highly valuable to her & her practice and strives to make a difference in society.
https://ally.pb.studio/

Lucy Clayton
"When I was growing up my nana had Alzheimer’s and was cared for by nurses in a care home. Her carers always chatted to her even though she couldn’t respond to them. Even though it was sad to not know the person she was, seeing that she was well looked after was comforting, and the care she received was excellent."

Through a process driven practice, I explore the instabilities that surround the term “nature.” What is nature? What does it mean for something to be natural? In a society reliant on single use products, and non-biodegradable materials, in light of this to what extent is our current “nature” natural. The once successful co-existence in the beginning of the Holocene, often referred to as the hunter-gatherer period, has seemingly become disproportionate, and humans have encroached upon nature. Unbalancing what is natural in the process. This illusion of a non-definitive line between humans and nature is questioned within my work.
During the current situation we find ourselves in nature plays a key role to our mental wellbeing. Confined to our homes, being able to leave the house and walk in the open creates some kind of normality and freeness to this strange situation.
https://lucyclayton12.wixsite.com/website

Aaron J Little

Review - Art of Caring at St Pancras Hospital

Review by London City Nights (19/09/2016)

You feel a weird combination of reassurance and worry walking through the doors of an NHS clinic. The staff are busy yet friendly, the walls are festooned with upbeat primary coloured posters and there's a pleasantly paternalistic atmosphere. This is a place designed to make you well, doing its level best to send you out the door in better shape than you walked in.

But then you notice the damp on the walls, the peeling paint and furniture that hasn't been replaced in 20 years. The NHS is suffering the death of a thousand cuts: the victim of a government ideologically opposed to a free at the point of use publicly owned health service. Jeremy Hunt assures us that they're merely 'modernising' the NHS when anyone with a glimmer of sense can see that he's setting it up to fail, its carcass fodder for the circling corporate vultures of the American healthcare industry. I mean, if it's not making investors any money, what's the point of it?


So it's wonderful to see an exhibition like The Art of Caring - a collection of work from nurses, patients and artists depicting their ideas on the theme of caring, specifically nursing. The exhibition is collaboration between Kingston University, The Arts Project and Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust, featuring work that ranges from photography, painting, performance and sculpture. Some of it is professional and polished, some is rough and passionate, but all displays a tenderness and empathy that perfectly suits the surroundings.

(Fractured Memories) Doll Therapy by Aran Illingworth

There's a lot to take in here, but I particularly enjoyed the following. (Fractured Memories) Doll Therapy by Aran Illingworth. It's a quietly devastating canvas piece about Alzheimers, capturing a painful morsel of misery in the eyes of someone whose memory is gradually eroding away. The arts n crafts textile look adds to the emotional wallop, not only looking like something a kindly grandmother might make, but the rough shapes and soft fabric underlining the subjects humanity and increasingly blurry edges.

Comfort and Joy - Susie Mendelsson

On a slightly different wavelength is Susie Mendelsson's Comfort and Joy, a bizarre mixed-media sculpture of a creepily wizened homunculus approaching a baby from behind while a tiny man stares on in horror. It's disturbing stuff, the soft manufactured plastic of the doll contrasting with the hand-carved chaos of the monster. That title has got to be a joke, because there's precious little comfort or joy in this. If I had to pick out a meaning, it seems to speak of a mother's trauma at losing a baby, then feeling guilt that the next one survives. Even as she cares for her healthy baby, she cannot help but imagine the forgotten one, balefully staring on in jealousy.

One Day at a Time - Susie Mendelsson

Also by Mendelsson is One Day at a Time, depicting a worried looking person weighed down by faceless little men. This is a little easier to parse, but no less effective. Here the effect of the paranoias, traumas and miseries of the past is literalised, showing them crawling all over an apparently normal person going about their day to day life. It looks suitably nightmarish, the haunted expression of the central figure conveying a palpable desperation.

Charlotte CHW

Sunday's event was capped off by a live performance from Charlotte CHW, who was also exhibiting photographs. Dressed in a suit that perfectly matched the brickwork of the building, she writhed about against the walls and on the floor accompanied by a soundtrack of breaking glass. Watching this it's difficult not to look up at the gently spooky Victorian brickwork and wonder just how long this hospital is going to last. Generations of Londoners have walked through these halls, each with their own individual ailments and stories to tell.


The performance understands this history, treating the building like a psychological sponge that's sucked up a century of trauma and needs to be squeezed dry.  Charlotte's movements are slow, painful and precise - it's like you can see dust crumbling from her joints as she repeatedly collapses and rises, trapped in some infinite loop of pain, healing and more pain. I dug it.


Anyhow, The Art of Caring is well worth checking out, demonstrating not only the public's affection for the NHS and its nurses, but just how critical its long-term support systems are. Whether you've sprained your ankle, suffered trauma in Blair's oil wars or are watching an elderly relative succumb to dementia, the NHS will always be there. But it also needs us to fight for it.


Art is Caring is at The Conference Centre, St Pancras Hospital, 4 St Pancras Way, London NW1 OPE (9am-5pm) until 13 October 2016.

The Exhibition finishes with a Closing Event on the 13th October 2016, 5.30-7.30pm.