The Wood for the Trees

Here is some new detail sections from Hospital Gardens, Ukraine posted on the website today. I met this boy who was sheltering from the sun with his girlfriend under a gazebo of one of the hospitals in Donetsk, Ukraine. I had sourced a flowerbed previously and waited, wandering around the grounds looking for the right model. My assistant/translator and producer Ulya and myself sat and talked with them for a while about what had happened; he had recently jumped off a bridge into the water and hit his head on some rocks under the surface.  He was still vulnerable and was being kept in to be monitored.

It felt during the conception of this project that there were invisible, caring people that had an awareness of the importance of landscape in the wellbeing and recovery of patients.

I met the director of Bibliothèque Nationale de France, who acquired Image_2419 for their permanent collection in 2012. She introduced me to 'Le Dormeur du Val' written by Arthur Rimbaud, 1870.

It’s a green hollow, where a river is singing
Crazily hanging on the grasses rags
Of silver; where the sun, from the proud mountain,
Is shinning: it’s a little valley bubbling with sunlight.

A young soldier, his mouth open, his head bare,
And the nape of his neck bathing in cool blue watercress,
Is sleeping; he is stretched out on the grass, under the skies,
Pale in his green bed where the light falls like rain.

Feet in the gladiolas, he is sleeping.Smiling like
A sick child would smile, he takes a nap:
Nature, rock him warmly: he is cold.

Fragrances do not make his nostrils quiver;
He sleeps in the sun, hand on the breast,
Peacefully. He has two red holes in his right side.

Detail from Image_2453, Boy with Head Injury, Ukraine 2011 © Richard Ansett

Detail from Image_2453, Boy with Head Injury, Ukraine 2011 © Richard Ansett