November 14th - 21st Jac Saorsa was Artist in Residence Ward 12 at Singleton Hospital , Swansea
Exhibition now open at Dynevor Centre foyer gallery until July 7th
Art and medical science have romanced each other throughout history. As an artist and researcher the focus of Jac Saorsa’s work is in reinstating the import of art in relation to medical science in order to encourage a productive balance between the objective necessity to treat the disease, and a more subjective understanding of the existential experience of illness. The artist works towards a ‘re-negotiation’ of art’s role and value in contemporary practice, and towards the advocacy, through a creative approach, of patient autonomy and the ‘humanisation’ of medicine.
The Cancer Ward 12 Artist in Residency project draws on literature (1) and on life. It involves the artist’s ‘immersion’ into the day-to-day life on the Oncology Ward of Singleton Hospital, which is a thirty bed, general oncology/haematology ward where patients with a variety of cancers and disease related symptoms are treated and cared for. Treatment may include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and symptom control, and ranges from radical management to palliative care. The artist will be resident on the ward for eight days, including some nights, and the work produced as a result of this residency will be exhibited as part of the Storytelling for Health Conference in June 2017.