Time | Installation
An interactive installation created in the main foyer of University Hospital Galway
Margaret Flannery, director of the Galway University Hospital Saolta Arts very kindly invited Finbar in to discuss possible projects they could create for Mental Health Awareness Day 2015. From this, a conversation about the sensitivity of a hospital began.
‘I understand that people come to hospital to physically get better but I think how you feel in a place and the effect it has on your mind is of equal importance.’
He began to consider who needed to be helped. Was it just the patients? Or could this also be of benefit to the 3000 visitors and 4000 staff that walk through the rotating double doors every day.
Creating a more positive space would have course benefitted a hospital, but what Finbar really found interesting was everyone’s perception of time while they were there.
‘Your whole life can change in a split second when you’re in a hospital and I wanted to show people that you can choose to take control of how you want to live at any point and do the things you’re always putting off, before you feel like that’s been taken away from you.’
Margaret Flannery, director of the Galway University Hospital Saolta Arts very kindly invited Finbar in to discuss possible projects they could create for Mental Health Awareness Day 2015. From this, a conversation about the sensitivity of a hospital began.
‘I understand that people come to hospital to physically get better but I think how you feel in a place and the effect it has on your mind is of equal importance.’
He began to consider who needed to be helped. Was it just the patients? Or could this also be of benefit to the 3000 visitors and 4000 staff that walk through the rotating double doors every day.
Creating a more positive space would have course benefitted a hospital, but what Finbar really found interesting was everyone’s perception of time while they were there.
‘Your whole life can change in a split second when you’re in a hospital and I wanted to show people that you can choose to take control of how you want to live at any point and do the things you’re always putting off, before you feel like that’s been taken away from you.’
By creating fifteen individual pieces based on time, Finbar brings you on a journey from a second in your life to the amount of months it takes to feel settled in a new living situation.
Finbar wanted to give people the opportunity to reflect on life with the hopes that they might be inspired to take action.
‘If we can focus on being happy and present in the now, doing things that bring us joy in life, the world would be a better place to live.’
As part of the installation 20,000 copies of an A5 black and white booklet, designed by Finbar were created so they could be taken home and shared.
These tokens acted as a reminder of the importance of taking care of yourself and making the most of the time you have.
