This work was created for the group exhibition, The Art of Nursing – artworks by nurses or about nursing. Kleemann chose the pillow as a metaphor for the support and caring of the nursing profession. With the pillow placed on a hospital bed, she simulated a hospital ward within the gallery. On or in this bed/ward however, it was the carers who were being examined. Viewers were encouraged to pick up and read the two stories, imbued with humour, and presented as medical charts, that rested on a table over the bed, giving a sense of nurses as ‘flawed’ real human beings.
Mixed media: laser prints on cotton pillow cases, pillows, hospital bed, hospital blanket, hospital table, text panels
Exhibited:
1998 – The Art of Nursing, Steps Gallery, Melbourne Australia
All works copyright The Artist 1998