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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Irene Brown
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
As artist in residence at the Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds in 2016 I produced View to the Past, a art installation consisting of five custom-made virtual reality viewers, placed at strategic points throughout the museum and three augmented reality postcards for sale in the shop. The commission brief was to reflect two significant but underrepresented periods in the building’s history; its original use as the Leeds Union Workhouse and its time as the East Leeds War Hospital during WW1. The residency was commissioned as part of Meeting Point - a year-long project led by contemporary art specialists Arts&Heritage. Leading UK and international artists were partnered with nine museums in the North East and Yorkshire to produce new artworks inspired by the museums and their collections. Funded by Arts Council England’s Museum Resilience Fund, Meeting Point presents artworks in unexpected places and supports small and medium-scale museums to commission artists to create work in response to the venue. The project aims to bring new visitors to the participating museums and position them as exciting places to see contemporary art. The Thackray is a history of medicine museum on the site of St James’s University Hospital in Leeds. Attracting over 65k visitors a year, it is housed in a grade II listed building, the former Leeds Union Workhouse, built in 1858. During the First World War it was the East Leeds War Hospital. It became the Thackray Medical Museum in 1997, named after Leeds-based international surgical instrument company of the same name. Historic instrumentation makes up the bulk of the artefacts in the museum collection.The museum attracts a diverse range of visitors including medical professionals attending conferences, families, school groups, medical students and organised outings for specialised interest groups.
Artist(s): Brown I
Publication type: Exhibition
Publication status: Published
Year: 2017
Number of Pieces: 8
Venue: Thackray Medical Museum
Location: Leeds, UK
Media of Output: Installation
URL: https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.74
DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.74
Notes: The project is also the subject of a published paper for the EVA (Electronic Visualisation of the Arts) conference Tuesday 11th July – Thursday 13th July 2017 [available at https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.74]
