Exhibition in Glasgow

Six Foot Gallery, Starter Pack Exhibition

It’s always great to have the opportunity to exhibit work, so when there was the Six Foot gallery open call, I was delighted when my piece The Mother’s Sitting Room was selected.

The print uses gold foiling and flocking to present a picture from the Grampian Hospital’s Archive in a new light.

A collage of vintage photographs and documents related to healthcare and hospital history. Includes an old hospital Sunlight Room, a mother's sitting room, lecture room, children with a nurse, a hospital annual report, a panoramic view of a hospital corridor with windows, old binocular viewers at an airport or train station, and a vintage hospital report booklet from 1916 and 1935.

Images that I was interested in from the Grampian Archive while working on this project commissioned by Grampian Hospitals Art Trust.

Black and white photos showing a mother's sitting room with armchairs, table, flowers, and a fireplace, and a lecture room with chairs, a blackboard, a desk, a blackboard eraser, and medical equipment.

This work responds to an overlooked image from the NHS Grampian Archives with the same name, The Mother’s Sitting Room. Through flocking and a symbolic border of limpets and carnations, it highlights the quiet support of an armchair and questions how everyday care and domestic spaces are represented and preserved within curated collections.

The border was developed with reference to the 1935 annual report cover. Looking through the archives, it was striking to see how, over time, these covers gradually lost their detail and ornateness. They shifted from richly considered designs to plain, functional documents, stripped back to just a title and year. This change reflects a broader societal move towards minimalism, where ornate detail is seen as unessential, and the presence of artisan makers has diminished.

The carnations in the border are a symbolic acknowledgment of motherhood, as they are the traditional flower of Mother’s Day.

Framed artwork titled 'Mother's Sitting Room', featuring an ornate decorative border and an illustration of an armchair
Four artworks on a white wall in an art gallery, including a painting of a bird's head, a portrait of a young child with a bird on their shoulder, a framed sketch of a chair within an ornate border, and an abstract painting with yellow and orange shapes.
View of an art gallery with white walls displaying various paintings. Several people are seen in the background, and a man in a red shirt is standing near a corner, looking at the artwork. A small white stand holding a potted plant is also visible.

EXHIBITION IMAGES: Noa Ferder

Six Foot Gallery Exhibition Interview: https://sixfootgallery.co.uk/the-six-foot-gallery-interview-starter-pack-carla-smith/
Six Foot Gallery, About the exhibition: https://sixfootgallery.co.uk/starter-pack/

More about the Grampian Hospitals Art Trust Commission - Here!