The Hospital Party (exhibition)
An analysis of The Hospital Party (2018)
When guests walked into the Hospital party their names and ‘ailments’ were noted down on a clip board along with any special dietary requirements. They were also asked to use the hand sanitizer for ’infection control’ just like in a real hospital ward. Next the guests were guided to the ward (the kitchen of my flat where the events of the night took place) and told a doctor would be with them shortly. This room was filled with decorations, party chains, balloons and paper plates and plastic cups with straws and lots of food to eat. But these decorations where not as they first seemed. The paper chains were made of patient hospital tags (hand crafted) with the details for the artist on each one. The balloons were made from blown up sterile rubber gloves, the straws feeding tubes and the paper plates were sick bowls. Also, in the room there were two red waiting room style chairs and, most obviously of all, a single bed dressed in blue blankets with traditional hospital corners on the sheets. A pack of cards was left on the edge of the bed along with two hospital gowns and on the windowsill were seven boxes labelled with the days of the week containing tic-tacs (sweets), these were intentionally made to look like pill boxes filled with pills. One could tell it was set up as both a party in a flat kitchen (just as university students do) and a hospital ward with all its medical equipment. Periodically throughout the evening the host and artist took sweets contained in a prescription bag and asked guests if they wanted their medications. If the guest said ‘no’ it was noted on the clipboard as ‘refused medication’.