nurses & midwives art exchange
2022 ARCHIVES OF FEELING RMIT DESIGN HUB
Nurses & Miswives Art Exchange2022
Sarah Colahan & Aurora Markel; Gabrielle Cosgriff Hatty & Ka Yan So (Kelly); Sue Denmead & Caity Girle; Jess Dillard-Wright & Hannah Hall; Shaley Ellis & Vivian Qiu; Lynne Evans Abbott & Kelly Hussey-Smith; Carol Giles & Julianna Nyeste; Katherine Handasyde & Beth Sanderson; Ruth Harper & Harry McCumiskey; Christina Haynes & Vittoria Di Stefano; Jo Henderson & Charlotte Hall; Jane Hopkins-Walsh & Marnie Badham; Shelby Johnson-Boe & Alex Danay; Mim Johnson & Koa Wamsteker; Angela Kelly & Angelina Innocent; Danielle Kiriati & Jessica Guo; Crystal Labbato & Ieesha Wild; Amanda Larcombe & Prue Wilkinson; Vanessa Mayanja & Cecilia Sordi Campos; Viki Mealings & Mia Presland; Cora Browne, Peter Bridson and the ‘Corona Choir’ (Kate Coombs, Kathleen Corless, Katherine Kyrkou and Anita Cappello) & Kate Stewart; Yvonne Mckinlay & Tracey Jones; Suzanne Neal & Aisha Hara; Sarah (Seung) Park & Evelyn Challinor; Helen Rawson & Fleur Summers; Laura Roos & Kate Driscoll; Mishalle Santos & Yi Yonah Ma; Xander Savage & Debra Higgens; Jill Spencer & Jiaxin Shi; Jerry Soucy & Oliver Biggins; Georgia Sutherland & Sunday Smith; Kimberley Thomas & Mark Edgoose; Stephanie Vienet & Clare McCracken; Subathra Vijayakumar & Alice Jordan; Brad Wishart & Alan Hill; Rachel Wood & Sarah Lockey; Shiyi (Andrea) Wu & Robyn Phelan; Tatiana Zecher & Rose Smith.
Nurses & Miswives Art Exchange2022
Salon 1
1a
Jane Hopkins Walsh
Tyler’s Jeans, 2022 Levi’s brand 3 button indigo dyed cotton; acrylic paint, metal pants hook Painted with an onion sprout and onion skin, wooden chop stick and a comb.
Tyler’s Jeans is a memorial to the over 6 million people (some say true numbers are double this) who died of Covid-19 or are dead as a result of a consequence of failed healthcare “system”, a system unprepared.
I honor people excluded from care; people in rural or global settings who are unable to access ventilators; people whose lives were lost to addiction and mental illness during pandemic times of lock-down, isolation and stress, and nurses who died of Covid-19. These human left behind clothing that marks lives lived and lives lost. I chose to paint a pair of donated jeans of a beautiful person named Tyler who died of a drug overdose during the third wave pandemic July 2021 to tell my nurse-Covid-19 story.
1b
Marnie Badham
For Jane and Tyler, 2022 Stacks of
worn jeans
These worn jeans hold the smells, memories and choreographies of the bodies to whom they belonged: with rips, stains, and frays; in colours indigo, savoy, navy, black, and powder blue; and sizes large, medium, and small… They also store the narratives of fast fashion, textile worker ex ploitation, gendered labour, and toxic masculinity. Stacked together on the floor, these garments bear witness to our collective anxieties and loss.
I responded to Jane’s artwork Tyler’s Jeans by collecting preloved jeans as tribute to nurses and their patients impacted by an unprepared healthcare system during the pandemic. I was also gift ed stories of special memories located in the rips and imprinted stains, children’s growth spurts, body image and weight gain, regrettable online purchases, and comfort garments worn during stay-at-home public health measures in Melbourne. Some contributors left handwritten notes in the pockets for Jane and Tyler, while others passed on stories to me to share. These stories and jeans will be regifted to local folks experiencing housing insecurity in my neighbourhood after the exhibition.
Shaley Ellis
Corvid Testing, 2021 Linoleum-cut print on paper
I created this piece during the Victorian lockdowns of 2021. It represents a stress ful and scary time for myself (and a lot of others). Both the plague doctor and the scared patient are representations of myself, as a nurse and a citizen during the time of Covid.
I experienced challenges during this time. It felt therapeutic to carve all the anxiety and darkness I was feeling during this time into a lino tile, but also symbolic of the ways my work was slowly carving away at me. On a more hopeful note, as I am represented by both the plague doctor and the patient in this artwork, it also serves as a reminder of the importance of looking after yourself.
2a
2b Vivian Qiu Shadow, 2022 Rice clay
Nurse Shaley experienced multiple emotions: scared, frustration, anger, depression, worry and anxiety during COVID (2020-2021). She mentioned how carving out the Lino block helped to carve the ‘anxiety and darkness’ away. It’s almost like how work ‘was slowly carving away’ at her. It was sad that during COVID, nurses were almost like shadows and their effort was not 100% appreci ated — despite how much emotion and physical work nurses have contributed to the health care system.
During our chat, I asked her to show me her favourite home decoration. I wanted to make a piece of sentimental decoration that can give her some comfort during down times. She showed me her favourite wall art by Mitch Gobel. My rice clay artwork is inspired by its colour tone, with an addition of bright yellow and harmonious pink to balance the dull green tone. Different colours also represent different emotions.
The curvy half-moon shapes were inspired by the shadow of the background of her lino cut piece. The edges and concave paths were carefully smoothed by my fingers, they are like safe zones that anyone can just jump in to block out noises from outside, and come out whenever you are ready.
3a Helen RawsonAlways A Nurse, 2021 Digital photograph
This is great work to highlight Nurses and Midwives. There is so much negativity about aged care especially during COVID 19. I wanted to share my experience and in doing so, highlight what the staff are/were doing to support those they care for.
3b Fleur Summers
Getting in Touch, 2022
Bronze, felt, plywood and self portrait
This work seeks to reach out and meet the touch of another. I offer the shape of my touch as a way of connecting with my nurse in an enduring and physical way. Despite the coolness of the bronze, it is warmed by the body of another - receiving and responding to the connection of bodies, memories and feelings. As our ability to touch and be touched continues to be diminished by the pandemic, this work acts as a go-between and a physical reminder that touch matters.
4a Laura Roos
Covid survival, 2022 Collage
Burnout and recovery from health care post covid is hard… really hard.
4b Kate Driscoll Rest, 2022
Drawing on paper
I wanted to create an image that my nurse could look at and enter a portal of natural elements. That could provide a space for moment of rest and to breathe.
Viki Mealings
‘The Smile’ spoken, 2022 Digital video work I work with children and newborn babies at a hospital.
5a
5b Mia Presland Untitled, 2022 Digital video work
6a Christina Haynes Sketches from hotel quarantine, 2020
Ink on paper
I worked in one of Melbourne’s public hospitals, on a covid ward during the pandemic in 2020. Long 12 hour shifts that were very challenging as responses to Covid-19 were constantly shifting and patient care was continually requiring rapid change. It took a toll on every nurse at that time and I believe it will continue to for a while to come.
6b
Vittoria de Stefano Negative Result, 2022
Salvaged glass, epoxy clay, flocking
Negative Result was made in response to pages from Christina’s lockdown diary during a hotel quarantine. The work comprises of a glass that appears to be in the process of being engulfed by some sort of growth. In this work I was responding to the anxiety experienced during the pandemic: the claustrophobia of lockdown combined with a sense of fear at the prospect of a pervasive interloper. The title Negative Result refers to a note in Christina’s diary in which she tested negative to Covid...but could also refer to the persistent sense of frustration and unease felt as a result of the pandemic.
Shiyi
(Andrea) WuA Sunny day in Maroubra Beach, 2020 Oil on canvas
As an international student, I studied and worked in Sydney for many years. Sydney is a second home for me. For personal reasons, I moved to Melbourne in March 2020 and started working at a local hospital. Unfortunately Covid started badly in Australia. I got infected at work in August 2020 and the symptoms were very severe. As I had long covid, I was still recovering from it in November. I missed my friends back in Sydney and I missed the feeling of walking and running on Maroubra Beach on a beautiful sunny day. I know that my life will never be the same. So I painted this piece in memory of my second home and how peaceful and lovely it was before all these happened.
The worst of isolation is not its physical distance, it’s more of the hopeless fear in your heart, that you thought you’d never show all your love to this world, that you thought you’d never meet your family/friends/loved ones again. Covid has made me broken. If I was being optimistic, which I must be, the good thing is now I have cracks to leak some memory in, to leak some light in, to leak some hope in. I was broken, but the memory of Sydney and the friendship Sydney has provided, it gave me hope and kept me going.
7a.
7b. Andrea Wu & Robyn Phelan
Remembering Maroubra Beach (sand play), 2022
Collaboratively hand-formed clay, Maroubra beach sand, hand-twined personal clothing
Andrea’s artist statement touched me deeply. We spoke on the phone, quickly arranging a meeting at the Queen Victoria Market for coffee and a long conversation about Covid, family, friends, tertiary study, and art making ensued. As a migrant and health worker, Andrea has found herself in a series of isolating situations from leaving family in China to Sydney to Melbourne to hotel quarantine. It became clear to me that the artwork I make in response to her painting must not be made in isolation but in a social, collaboration between us. I offered her the possibility of meeting in my studio to see what might evolve.
Andrea agreed! Calling on a friend who swims daily at Maroubra, I arranged for a handful of sand to be posted to me in Melbourne. The sand became the material encounter from which to frame the objects that we made together. My ceramic practice utilises clay as a malleable material to record the touch of the body and the site from which making occurs. Together we pinched and patted clay components whilst exchanging stories of our lives and how art is made. We decided that three forms would be made to hold and sift the Maroubra sand. Andrea is a poetic and symbolic thinker and immediately grasped the metaphorical and associative connection to handling materials (sand, clay, textile) as they hold memories of place and to the experience of making together. The three sculptural components are held by twine made from garments from Andrea (her exercise top she wore walking at Maroubra), a pair of my jeans and my son’s t-shirt. I hope that the gift of Remembering Maroubra Beach (sand play) remains a constant and tangible reminder of warm memories.
This conjoint exhibition includes two types of artworks—a piece of oil painting and a three-piece ceramic artwork. The oil painting is a landscape of Maroubra Beach, Sydney, created by a registered nurse Shiyi Wu (Andrea), who worked in the front line and got infected of Covid with severe illness. The memory of Maroubra Beach has encouraged her to fight with the virus while isolated from the support from her friends who live in the Maroubra area. The ceramic artwork is created by the ceramic artist Robyn Phelan, who combined the story of Andrea in this artwork. The ceramic artwork includes 3 separated pieces of ceramic artwork linked with the braided string—The top piece (represents the big anxious environment) holds the sand from Maroubra (represent time, memory and emotion), pouring into the second piece (represent individuals during pandemic) which has cracks that leaks the sand into the last piece (represents things and people who linked to the anxious individuals). The ceramic artwork symbolically illustrates that each individual in the big environment suffers (cracked) but they have to bear the anxiety and fear from the environment. By sharing their related objects, activities or people, the emotion of anxiety, fear and anger has been released. The artwork emphasised the importance of connection and community could enhance individual strength.
8a.
Jill Spencer
Sewing My Way Out!, 2020-22
Scrap and recycled cottons, linens, hessian, wire, buttons and textiles
Creating a space within my home, that would inspire and nurture during lockdown. I surrounded myself with colourful fabrics, cottons, paints and needles. I connected with online artists and would listen to their stories, wisdom and knowledge while I sewed. I felt at peace. I was sewing up the seams while the world outside unraveled.
8b. Jiaxin Shi Hello :D,
2022
Mixed-media sculpture, electronic scraps, book, yellow, red and pink paper
Working with a nurse was a fun experience, particularly to be able to read and know about a different aspect of life. How they encounter it and express themselves through their creations. To then create something of our own in response, to these real emotions, instead of something usually conceptual. I was especially inspired by the aspect of communication. The knowledge and joy that it can bring to yourself and others, I wish to explore more of this through the shape of the book and mechanical parts as well as the folded stars and hearts that can be unraveled to reveal encouragement inside.
9a Carol Giles 5 minute round trips, 2021 digital photographs
My partner works in art education and told me about this project and encouraged me to submit. I love photography and enjoy sharing visual moments in my life with friends and family.
9b Julienne Nyste
Untitled, 2022
Illustrations in a small handmade book
10a. Georgia Sutherland Untitled, 2021
Poem Poem written on the evening of 23rd September, 2021 after a day at the hospital, watching rioting construction workers and anti-vax protestors wreak havoc on the city. The anger and frustration, feeling of “How dare they?”, as we were working so hard in silence behind the walls of the hospital, and well and truly felt like rioting, but we didn’t have the luxury!
10b.
Sunday Smith
Untitled, 2022
Soundscape
I have been in constant awe of Georgia as her poem is so raw and confronting that I was eager to respond in a way that explored the poem in an aural experience that dives into the vulnerabilities and chaos in her everyday work environment. The sharpness and attention to the intensities of sudden moments make you completely transported into the realities of working in the hospital throughout the pandemic. Georgia spoke about this idea of feeling as though she is on autopilot as the trauma and the intensity of the work caused her to feel numb and stuck or lost within the chaos of her surroundings which fundamentally disrupts your subconscious and moreover causing the mind to feel perpetually stuck inside this never ending cycle. Georgia’s experience is so vulnerable and confronting and throughout her poem she immediately draws you into what is just a couple of moments out of a million which continuously allows the viewer to see and explore a world that is not there own and confront them with the realities of health care workers and their experiences.
11a.
Yvonne MckinlayInspired by nurses across the world, 2020 Poem
The WHO designated 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. We started off with such excitement as the profession across the globe was looking forward to celebrating the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. International Nurses Day (IND) was going to be a special event globally. There was a significant shift as the pandemic unfolded however I wanted to capture my feelings at the time about these events. Nursing is an art and a science so ‘With hearts and minds united we are set to soar.’ The pandemic and the celebration of IND was to be remembered through this poem.
11b.
Tracey Jones
They’re for you, 2022 Oil on canvas
After reading Yvonne’s poem ‘Inspired by Nurses Across the World,’ I saw nurses all over the globe swathed in ‘PPE yellow” and ‘glove blue”. Pushing aside their celebrations they ‘geared up’ and waited at the ready to protect us all from an invisible threat. My work ‘They’re for You’ describes those early days and the enormous undertaking of our nurses in their efforts to protect us as they prepare for the virus’s arrival and each new wave.
12a. Ruth Harper
Untitled, 2022 Text
I am looking for an artist to recreate a scene we can only describe. At the hospital that I worked at, two wards joined and became one when they turned hot. This was challenging but successful. I was seconded away from my ward at the time and while listening to the two NUMs who were in the roles they told me of this amazing and emotional scene. An ANUM from one ward saw an ANUM from another dancing with an elderly Italian man to his favorite music. The scene was viewed from the bedroom door and the light was beautiful. The nurse was in full PPE and so was the observer hence the inability to take a photo. I would love this to inspire an artist’s creativity and minds eye to represent the emotion of the moment.
12b.
Harry McCumiskey Rendezvous, 2022 Graphite, pencils and pastel
My allocated submission was a little different from the others. There was no formal submission, rather a request of a memory. I was able to meet my nurse where she worked and was lucky enough to see where the memory took place. The memory detailed a beautiful moment between two figures dancing in light to music. The memory was of importance as it took place during a very hectic time for nurses. We also exchanged emails a few times, answering questions and updating progress of the drawing.
13a.
Sarah Colahan
The Drowning, 2022 Watercolour pencil on paper
The best way I can describe working during the pandemic is feeling like you’re drowning; hence the mask appearing like water flowing over the face in my artwork. I am a nurse/midwife who has worked during the pandemic in a covid streaming public hospital. The health care system has been strained for a long time…short staffing and burnout are some of the many issues present and impacting on staff even before COVID. The pandemic has just pushed the system over the edge. I am lucky to work with a great team–who have supported each other throughout the pandemic and this is one thing that has kept me going. However, it has been a demanding, daunting & emotional time to get through – and I’m scared that more good staff will become despondent and leave.I am hopeful that the pandemic creates change. Specifically improved health care working conditions and more support for staff.
I love designing and drawing as a hobby; and can often be found creating new pieces of artwork for family and friends. I learnt about the RMIT ‘Share your pandemic experiences’ exhibition through a colleague at work. She messaged me saying I should submit a piece; and I felt this would be a good way to express my experience during the COVID pandemic through art; and to share this with the public – so thank you for this opportunity!
13b.
Aurora Markel
The Deep, 2022 Linocut print on rag paper
I felt compelled to give Sarah a work that could remind her of her strength and resilience. Where she explained ‘The Drowning’ as a depiction of her overwhelming experience as a midwife nurse, my work ‘The Deep’ is about floating and surviving through each day despite the burn out.
Working with Sarah has shown me the power that art holds in creating discussions about the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare workers.
14a.
Jess Dillard-Wright Stupid walk for my stupid men-tal health, 2022 Watercolour on paper
Walking saved my life during the pandemic as I worked to keep my family afloat, finish my PhD, keep 150 students on track to enter the nursing workforce. Every day. Without fail. Walking walking. Walking and talking - with friends, family, therapist…
I taught health policy and community health, primarily for prelicensure nursing students in the Deep South of the US. This context shaped and shapes our experience of the civil unrest that accompanied the pandemic as well as the inequities that characterize health outcomes in the US. One thing that weighs heavily for me is the utter failure of nursing higher education to model care and leadership for the students we work with. It could all be different.
14b Hannah Hall
Staying Grounded, 2022 Acrylic on wood
The work Jess created — a small watercolour, largely made up of greys, with hints of bright colour shining through — has quite a hopeful feeling surrounding it despite the dark colour scheme. In response, I chose to use greys in my own artwork for this project, yet keep enough colour involved to shine through the greys and keep out the feelings of gloom. Later, I learned that Jess’ title, A stupid walk for my stupid mental health, referenced the importance of walking as a way of coping with the stresses and anxieties of the pandemic. Walking as a strategy to relieve pressure on our mental health is something I know many people, including myself can closely identify with over the last few years. This work is made up of collected imagery from my own walks, mainly shapes from shadows cast on the pavement. I find daytime shadows quite hopeful in themselves, after all they wouldn’t exist without the sunshine.
15a.
Cora Browne, Peter Bridson and the ‘Corona Choir’ (Kate Coombs, Kathleen Corless, Katherine Kyrkou and Anita Cappello) Fairy Tale of New Work, 2021 Digital video/song
Almost all healthcare educators at Eastern Health hold clinical roles as well as their role as educators. As well as keeping the staff that they are responsible for educated in the specific discipline that they teach, they also had to care for patients, and rapidly pivot to online teaching for their specialities as well as constantly changing COVID guidelines and requirements. It was an exhausting two year period that still has not finished. Many staff had little or no breaks/holidays over the past two years. Some did not see their family overseas for over two years. Yet non complained. We came together as a team, knowing that we were contributing to the health and well-being of the people of Victoria and Australia.
15b.
Kate Stewart
Get Well Soon, 2022 Ink jet prints with Napi-San solution
Kate Stewart is a Melbourne-based artist who works with layering and images to create complex composite works suggestive of compressed time and experience. In this series of works, the layering of Get Well Soon and Thank You cards is suggestive of the seemingly endless wave-after-wave of COVID impacts on the Nurses and Educators she spoke with. The cards are scrubbed with Napi-San stain remover resulting in a battered and distressed surface. An aesthetic employed to convey something of the combination of exhaustion, fragility and hope that underlies the experience of working in the health system.
16a.
Subathra VijayakumarThe New (Scary) World We Live In, 2020 Digital photograph
As a mental health nurse working through the pandemic, I want my story heard. It was tough, everyday, sending my child to daycare during the pandemic so that I can care for people with mental illness. It was tough, everyday, to put myself and my family at risk just so that I was reducing the risks for the clients.
16b. Alice Jordan my working hands, 2022 Repurposed leather jacket, plastic gloves and embroidery thread
In the medical field, hands are crucial to the healing process, from a reassuring touch on the shoulder, holding hands, or the steady hand giving injections. My work centres on the hands to refocus on the identity of healthcare workers. During Covid, the immense PPE and restrictions that kept us safe also made touch restricted. No longer could nurses provide that reassuring hand to hold, this loss of intimacy was hard on both healthcare workers and patients.
With the work My working hands, I wanted to capture and highlight the identity that is lost, humanizing healthcare workers. Providing care and healing is not always easy, full of conflict over required tasks and the tough working environments. The gloves work to provide a safe space for the hands, to reflect and feel grounded again. The quilted fingerprints and palm lines are meant to be touched, to feel the comfort of a soft hand while protecting the worker wearing them.
17a.
Vanessa Mayanja moments of reprieve, 2020 iPhone photos
Experiencing the art of other people is a source of introspection, joy, and curiosity for myself. I haven’t always considered myself creative enough to “do art”, so I’m excited for the opportunity to contribute something to this exhibit.
Finding new ways to maintain friendships and access social support were a cornerstone of my workingin-healthcare-during-a-pandemic wellbeing plan. Who could have predicted how COVID-19 separated families, strained relationships, disrupted routines, broke hearts and crushed dreams. As the novelty of lockdowns, working from home, and zoom meetings faded, my mental health began to wobble. I worried about the uncertain trajectory of the pandemic, maintaining patient privacy working from a home full of people, whether I would be redeployed, and if my rusty bedside skills would be enough to help in high acuity areas. In times of reduced case numbers, a close colleague and I would meet at a rooftop garden at work. Seeing her friendly face would go a long way until the next time we could visit.
17b.
Cecilia Sordi CamposAcacia dealbata for Vanessa, 2022 Scanned lumen prints
In one of the stories in his book Confabulations, John Berger muses: “how do the leptocephali find their way over the ocean-bed to the river’s mouth? If they are remembering something, it is something that occurred before they existed.”This musing relates to the fête known as the Sagra dell’ Anguilla, or Festival of the Eel, in the town of Comacchio, Italy. When the eels are caught for the fête, they are usually mercury in colour and 10 years old. Before that, when newly hatched, they are transparent leptocephali. They hatch in the Sargasso Sea, opposite Mexico, and it takes them three to four years to cross the Atlantic. They then exchange the ocean for the fresh water in the wetlands of Comacchio to settle and grow. In autumn, years after their settling, they experience an urge to return to the ocean bed they originally came from and spawn. Having spawned, they die there amongst the seaweed. The transparent leptocephali then re-cross the ocean alone.
Before I spoke to Vanessa, I looked over her images and read her words Moments of Reprieve many times. Evidently, this is not Italy during a festival. Nor are we eels. But we live through a pandemic of a virus that insists to linger. We are both migrants and a long way from home. Simultaneously, we both turn to nature to seek solace. We do share something with the leptocephali, however. We share a primitive, embodied knowledge to turn to nature, to somehow find our way. Vanessa in a garden with her friend Leah, while I sat under willow trees at a park.
18a. Rachel Wood Breathe...In and Out, 2020 Photograph collage of drawing in ink, text and watercolour
Breathe...In and Out reflects the repeated self-talk mantras and breathing exercises I use to navigate the internal stress of working as a nurse. Stress and fear can make us lose our sense of purpose and perspective. I need to breathe out my fear and frustration when I’m working as a nurse at times, and breathe in my wiser, calmer, grateful self. The drawing was a piece in my journal from early pandemic times.
18b. Sarah Lockey Breathe In, Breathe Out, 2022 Paper, flour and copper
In response to nurse Rachel Wood’s artwork, Breathe...In and Out 2020, and her use of mindful breathing exercises, I began to picture the shapes made by the movement of air when we breathe. The flow of the positive inhaled and the negative expelled. The good and the bad, the valued and the toxic, the light and the heavy.
First in fine opaque tissue paper and then in a thicker, denser kraft paper, I fashioned two similar shapes, endeavouring to give physical form to that which I imagined. The soft translucent material appears calming and ethereal, whilst the heavier paper, made heavier yet with the addition of multiple layers of copper, represents all that is feared and unwanted.
19a. Suzanne Neal
Untitled, 2020 Archival photographic print
Being at home during lockdown I noticed that the poppies I had been given by a friend were just as beautiful in their transition from full flowering to the luminescence of faded beauty and droopiness. Their shaped took on another form, one that looked to me of dancers. These images show the beauty in what has been spent and encourages the observer to see the beauty even as they changed shape.This concept has been known in Japan for centuries and the aesthetic is known as Wabi-sabi and is accepts the notion of transience and imperfection.
Having retired slightly earlier than planned from a busy surgical unit, I wanted to do something positive that contributed to the pandemic, and involved more socialization than the daily 1 hour walks with a friend. From August 2020 to the end of December I worked part time from home, on contract, as a Public Health Officer on one of the Covid19 help lines. In July 2021 I began working as a Nurse Vaccinator. I thoroughly enjoyed this work although doing so much talking wearing N95 masks was challenging. The majority of the clients were very grateful for the work we were doing. And it was a terrific place to work and there was a great camaraderie amongst the staff.
19b. Aisha Hara Untitled, 2022 Oil on wooden pane
Nurses & Miswives Art Exchange2022
Salon 2
1a.
Amanda
LarcombeBereft Meaning: Bereft: “de-prived of or lacking something needed, wanted or expected”, 2021 Anthropomorphic nature art, upcycled art and found-object sculpture
With covid lockdowns and introduction of office density limits I worked from home. My days became consumed with sourcing essential medical appliances lost or delayed in the post or unobtainable from the usual suppliers. At-home clinical interventions were overshadowed by fears of virus transmission and masked communications. The face mask and goggles became a wall they begged me to remove. They couldn’t hear me, they didn’t understand what I was saying. Demonstrations became a charade of frustration. While they were eyes down learning the techniques, I was trying to transmit reassurance with over-exaggerated hand gestures, nods, widened eyes and raised eyebrows. Despite all the exuberance of delivery, it felt like my education was compromised, my clinical support became shallow. Access to hands-on problem solving declined, we were trying to resolve concerns by photos and email or over the phone. With so many of my clients elderly or disabled, many were too scared to allow anyone into their homes. Trial products delivered only to the door step or letterbox felt meaningless and hollow without demonstration and interaction. Care and treatment planning became paper-based two-dimensional, one-sided and stilted: directive not collaborative. Bereft.
1b. Prue Wilkinson
Dirt Rain, 2022 Acrylic and oil on canvas
Months filled with struggle and protest in addition to the globally shared experience of pandemic-related fear passed before any announcement would be made from Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron as to whether any of the three officers responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor in her own home would be held responsible. On September 23, 2020 we learned they would not. Instead the grand jury declined to announce any charges against Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, but did charge the third involved officer, Brett Hankison with three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting into other people’s apartments. The city began preparing for the announcement two days earlier by dragging in concrete barricades in a perimeter of about several blocks around the center of the protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor at Injustice Square Park, eliminating any possibility of motor vehicle traffic. No one was getting in or out of the square quickly, and if there was any doubt the National Guard and Kentucky State Police were asked in. A 9 o’clock p.m. curfew was announced. Everyone knew exactly what would happen. All told over 140 people were arrested through the course of the day.
2a. Crystal Labbato 694-9454, 2020
iPhone photograph
Two Louisville Metro Police officers received non-fatal gunshot wounds. I feared the worst retaliation possible from the city. I knew where I had to be. I packed three tourniquets, lots of water for eyewash, gloves. I used a Sharpie to record the number for jail support on my belly. I joined at least five other medics as we donned our gas masks and marched into the clouds of tear gas to offer whatever we could to the protestors that remained at 6th and Jefferson beyond the concrete barricades. And after the legions of law enforcement agencies began moving in formation and size disproportionate to the last grieving, angry, frightened community members that remained the only thing I had left to offer was calm as me and my buddies signaled to those behind us that we were surrounded… We were restrained and driven the two blocks around the barricades into the Louisville Department of Corrections. I was held with over thirty others in a maybe 600 square foot space. Many others were escorted in beaten, only to later learn they were beaten by the police that detained them. I was held with a person whose arm bones were broken by police. They were neglected and denied care for over 24 hours. Staff didn’t look you in the eye. They didn’t wear masks. Yesterday, the Courier Journal announced the death of a seventh inmate at the Louisville Department of Corrections since November. This should never, ever be. This self-portrait was taken at home the following day after was released. I still run through that night in my brain to make sure there was nothing I could have done differently, but I will never regret being on the street that night, because I was out there as a nurse.
2b.
Leesha
Wild Shelter in a storm, 2022 Miniature. Clay, basal wood, felt and wire
Creating of this art piece was extremely therapeutic for myself, and I hope later, will be something of a therapeutic gift to my nurse. Working in the COVID ward is an overly taxing job, there is no reprieve and there is no time for a moment to yourself. It can be isolating in the extremes, not to mention the toll it takes on your health, physically and emotionally. Yet it is also an amazingly rewarding career - helping to better the lives of those around you. The nurse I collaborated with, Crystal (they/ them), is located in the United States, and the beginning of COVID coincided with the Black Lives Matter protests and movement that surrounded the murder of George Floyd. For Crystal and so many others, this was an extremely tumultuous time. Being in the centre of both the virus and the protests, as a nurse, Crystal spent the years experiencing one major life event after the other, all while caring and aiding others. Crystal is adamantly selfless in these areas, in the midst of doing their job and helping in rallies, they continue to call attention to the victims of social injustice and the patients at the hospital. I wanted to call attention to Crystal in some way, however small it may be, by making a miniature version of a safe space of theirs - their living room. My aim for this piece was make Crystal feel as though they were being seen and heard, that their arduous work did not go unnoticed. I felt very connected to this work as my sister also worked extremely closely in the COVID ward during this time and had a firsthand experience as to how isolating and taxing it can be. Hopefully, Crystal and my sister can feel like someone else saw them for the heroes that they are, and that the celebration of the little things - like a safe space to call home, could be the start of a thank you for all their work.
3a. Brad Wishart
Intensive Care at the Alfred, 2021 Digital photographs (reproduced with permission)
Photographs were taken by myself using my iPhone and Nikon D610 at The Alfred Hospital ICU from the start of the pandemic (February 2020) to now.
My iPhone was used initially as it is small, convenient and always with me. I then used my Nikon D610 full-format DSLR to take videos and photographs of life in a very busy city ICU to document the global COVID-19 pandemic from a Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) perspective. Permission was requested and granted from the ICU Medical Director and ICU Associate Director of Nursing.
3b. Alan Hill
Fawkner Park, 2022 Digital photograph
Brad’s experience, and images, are quite extraordinary. Upon seeing them, and speaking to Brad, it immediately opened up new dimensions of understanding for me about this time. Seeing and hearing about the experience inside the ICU, and Brad’s image looking out across the helipad, caused me to reflect on the inside/outside perspectives. My image captures life on the outside in Fawkner back while also looking back in, and imagining what is still unfolding inside.
4a. Shelby Boe
With Woman, 2022 Photograph and poem
I know a student at RMIT who knew about my experiences during the pandemic and she suggest I make a submission. I had taken some self portraits to document my experience of the pandemic and had written some short pieces as a way of expressing and processing what I was going through. These were intended to be for my own self reflection. I just felt a need to capture what was happening to me and now I see they could have a greater purpose.
The self portrait is one of a few images I took throughout the pandemic. It is actually from this year I was in my lounge room and the song Walking Home in the Rain by EAST came on and I started crying. I used to listen to this song on my way home from work and process what had happened on my shift. I realised how much these experiences have touched me even after all this time it still brings me to tears. I will never forget these women or their births.
4b. Alex Danay
So I put my headphones on, my favorite song starts to play, and I’m okay’, 2022 Digital video with hand-drawn frames with paper, lead pencil, and black felt tip pen. Compiled in video format with recorded audio of ambient sounds
My work is about giving people the opportunity to stop and breath and to give them permission to be in the present moment. I responded to Nurse Shelby’s work, and during our conversation I gained a lot of insight into how difficult it actually was for her as a nurse and midwife during the pandemic. A lot of aspects of my work responds to our conversation together. The brown background was specifically chosen because ‘Code Brown’, which is an emergency code, put nurses and midwives over ratio, which was particularly difficult during the pandemic, also mentioning it would potentially be put into place as regular policy post pandemic. She also talked about some of the traumatic episodes that she witnessed, so I wanted to put something in the piece that represented her strength and kindness which are the flowers, each flower having its own meaning. For example, friendship, care, strength, kindness, etc. This was to also represent our appreciation for nurses and midwives. The image of the breathing lung is to remind Shelby and the audience to take a moment to breath and connect with the present moment. To acknowledge the sadness and hardship but focusing your breath will help you to sit with those emotions and let them pass. During our conversation as well, she mentioned a song and after listening to it I also gained a bit of hope and comfort from it, giving the title to my piece ‘So I put my headphones on, my favorite song starts to play, and I’m ok’, which are the last lines in the song.
5a.
Gabrielle
Cosgriff HattyThere’s a virus, 2022 Poem
It has been a very long 3 years. Nurses are so important in our every day and even more so now. It’s wonderful to be considered to contribute to an initiative such as this. Thank you for the opportunity.
I have specialised in Neonatal Intensive Care for over 17 years. Nothing has frightened me, not even babies who are born far too early, weighing just over 300grams with the equipment and challenges they bring. Covid was the first thing that truly scared me. Covid took all of our choices off the table and forced us to reassess everything. It’s scary. The thought of losing brilliant nurses because they were caring for a contagious patient is overwhelming. We’re still waiting for the pandemic to end.
5b. Ka Yan So (Kelly) Apricity, 2022 Polyester lining fabric, calico quilted fabric, laces and pearls
When I was reading my nurse partner Gabrielle’s writing about her traumatic experiences during the pandemic, I felt overwhelmed and full of guilt. At first, I intended to interpret the sense of breathlessness in response to Gabrielle’s work, but I realised recalling Gabrielle’s and other audience’s painful experiences during the COVID is not what I want.
The act of documenting of Gabrielle’s writing inspired me to turn the intenseness into hope, and utilize my work as a future documentation with full of possibility. I decided to create a Fabric Journal for Gabrielle, which contains 8 empty pages, some functional pockets, a bookmark, and a hand-carry journal inside. The reason of providing empty spaces in the journal is to leave a sense of hope. It is hoped to encourage Gabrielle to pick up her sacrificed plans during COVID, go to the trips again and record all her enjoyable memories and collections. It would be her personal comfort space and she could express herself anytime in it. The title ‘Apricity’ means the warmth of the sun in winter, and it symbolises that there is always hope and love even in the hardest time. I wish the work could remind Gabrielle the importance of self-love in our life.
6a.
Tatiana Zecher
Birth Warriors: Mothers, mid-wives, babies, 2022 Photo collage
As a mental health nurse working through the pandemic, I want my story heard. It was tough, everyday, sending my child to daycare during the pandemic so that I can care for people with mental illness. It was tough, everyday, to put myself and my family at risk just so that I was reducing the risks for the clients.
6b. Rose Smith
Together, separately, 2022 Oil on wooden canvas
Working with Tatiana and her experiences was nothing short of a pleasure. As a midwife during the Covid-19 pandemic, and as someone relatively new to Melbourne, Tatiana found love and connection incredibly prominent forces which kept people united during this time. She found beauty in connections she made with new parents who were not able to reach out to their loved ones, and in Melbourne city itself. Her overwhelming sense of positivity led me to create an abstracted painting of the photos she herself had used in her collaged artwork. I wanted to gift Tatiana an artwork which would allow her to reflect on all the good work she had done - and continues to do - for those in need, as well as create a piece which mirrors the beauty she sees in this city.
7a.
Sarah (Seung) Park Crying Frontal Lobe, 2022 Digital illustration
I’ve been working in the ICU as a critical care nurse for over 20 years. In my career, COVID-19 and the Pandemic were the most difficult and emotionally draining events. As a result, I’d like to express how the situation affected our (critical care nurses’) emotions, judgement, personality, and behavior, all of which are controlled by the frontal lobe.
7b. Evelyn Challinor Alone, Together, 2022 Oil on canvas
In conversation with Sarah, I learned of her hardships and sacrifice while working in ICU during the early era of the pandemic. Her artwork inspired me to respond with a work that could focus on a singular body part to convey the roller coaster of emotions brought on in 2020.
8a. Katherine Handasyde Untitled, 2022 Oil
on canvas
I wanted to illustrate how nurses took on a greater emotional support role for anxious patients who were separated from family during lockdown. I initially did a sketch of this patient after I got home from a busy shift in 2021. When I saw this exhibition I was excited to share this painting I did based on the sketch. The exhibition is a great way to increase understanding of the journey nurses and midwives go on adjusting the way we work in amongst the changing healthcare environment.
In this oil painting I depicted a patient I cared for during the 2021 lockdown. With no-visitor Covid restrictions, patients endured lonely hospital stays separated from their family and friends, increasingly relying on nurses for emotional support.
8b. Beth Sanderson Untitled, 2022 Copper, vitreous enamel and gold foil
9a.
Jo Henderson Nursing Kids Online, 2022 Illustration
I think it is wonderful that we can express our anxieties about working in the COVID environment . And to share that in creative ways is a bonus. Im not sure the general community have awareness beyond the dermatitis and skin sores. Expressing these issues is helpful too!
I am a nurse consultant and work in a virtual COVID ward for children. I worked coordinating and leading the callers as we contacted covid positive families. Provided medical support , food, medicines, in home medical and nursing treatment and psychosocial support. At the worst of the lockdowns we looked after 2500 children at a single time . We brought children into the hospital to be cared for whilst their parents were in hospital in a virtual home. The children were kept with their siblings and cared for in a home in the hospital. We spent many an anxious day calling ambulances , social services and other support for the families. We cared for many more children in the community, more than five times the capacity of the hospital. We worked long and very stressed days.
9b.
Charlotte Hall
A Nurse’s Value, 2022 Graphite drawings on watercolour paper, mounted onto two acrylic sheets and presented in a wooden stand
I was really grateful to have a wonderful 40-minute phone call with Jo quite early in this process, and we bonded over our mutual interest in drawing! I was really touched to hear her experiences has a virtual COVID nurse, and hoped I could further emphasise and reflect aspects of her sketch through my artwork as well. As we discussed our love for drawing, I really wanted to create an artwork for Jo that was in this art form, however I didn’t want to take away from Jo’s beautiful sketch.
My initial response was to create a work that showed a more ‘positive’ side of Jo’s concept, and ultimately I did choose to incorporate this whilst still highlighting the side that Jo’s work represented. An important element of my work is therefore the idea of ‘perspective’, creating an experience for the audience and illustrating the confronting issues of COVID for nurses whilst still incorporating an optimistic and heart-warming approach.
10a.
Sue DenmeadAn observation of fathers in COVID times by a Maternal and Child Health Nurse in Melbourne. Some thoughts of seeing new fathers living in a pandemic, 2022 Text
As a Maternal and Child Health nurse working throughout the pandemic supporting new parents from the birth of their infants to seeing their children at 2 years of age, i was blown away by how the fathers managed their time at home connecting with their newborn babies. I know as a parent myself how crazy life had become, with managing all the expectations we had of ourselves and society had of us, in keeping our children active, intelligent and into every sport offered - or ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ so to speak.
Having a sudden break in proceedings was challenging, a shock, a disappointment but eventually an incredible time to spend with our immediate family, getting to know each other again and to take time doing the things we had missed in our previously action packed silly worlds. They got to know their babies, they learnt about and connected with their babies and young children like i have not seen before - it was incredible.
10b.
Caity Girle Future Blooming, 2022 Found objects, mixed media, and collected flora from the Midwifes’ home.
This artwork is in response to the submitted written entries of a Midwife specialising in infant mental health and her experience of the before, during and after Covid lockdowns; “The merry-go-round of life. The Midwife was stationed at home during the pandemic and communicated through mobile phones and video conference platforms. They experienced Covid in a different light from other health practitioners throughout the pandemic.
A multitude of themes are present: home, care maternally, paternally and from mental health, the long isolation, and infants’ womb developmental recognition of voices and sound. One room sitting atop a body of ‘water’ (blue resin) symbolises the isolation of COVID; not only for the midwife but for the extending families communicating on the other end. A telephone cord attached to a stitched hand represents both the active use of the midwife’s telecommunication devices during the lockdown and support and, the ‘umbilical cord’ between mother and child. Inside the home rests a cured resin heart filled with miniature toys, wire and led lights active by sound.
These themes are presented in the work through concepts colourful materials, and kitschy DIY aesthetics. The flora was collected from the midwife’s home and importantly, elements of a carrousel; as it spins,
Nurses & Miswives Art Exchange2022
Salon 3
1a.
Kimberley Thomas
I need a 6 month holiday, 2 times a year!!, 2021 Acrylic painting
I work as a theatre nurse. My hobby/mindfulness is undertaking anything art!! I completed many paintings during lockdowns as a timeout.
I work fulltime in the operating theatre. Theatre is somewhat of an unknown working environment but the pandemic made this more of an unknown. We were treating potential covid patients, quickly learning all things covid in PPE. This was changing daily. Lists and shifts being changed. Just trying to do our jobs and navigate the unknown. Together we took each day as it came.
1b. Mark Edgoose
Golden beach lounge, 2022
Stainless steel, titanium, copper, nickel, 24ct gold plate
The metaphor ‘The sand is a golden blanket’ conjures memories of golden sand on a sunny beach laid out like a comfy and warm blanket summoning you to lie down and soak up the welcomed sunshine.My gift was conceived through Kimberly’s title and artwork, I need a 6 month holiday, 2 times a year!!, 2021. Kimberley is a theatre nurse where chaos and navigating the unknown became part of the hectic daily routine.
Golden beach lounge evokes warmth, sand, healing, rest, calm, beach and rhythm to help the body and mind revitalise. The preciousness of the 24ct gold plating embodies the cherished work Kimberley performs and marks this time for rejuvenation.
2a.
Mishalle Santos Untitled, 2022 Song lyrics
I am an EEN who has been part of the surge workforce for pandemic response. I wrote this song to help myself process the stress I have felt from empathising with so many people who were going through so much during the pandemic. I used to be a classical pianist and still play at home from time to time, mostly to relieve my emotions and to de-stress by writing songs. These are the lyrics.
on Youtube
Cehck out Mishalle Santos2b. Yi Yonah Ma Memories, 2022 Oil on canvas printed on light silk satin
Mishalle wrote a song named ‘I’ll Carry You’ during the pandemic about being a nurse in challenging times. The lyrics she wrote were very descriptive of what daily obstacles she needed to face during the epidemic. In her lyrics ‘your life is like a painting, I paint inside my mind, I hoard all of the paintings, they’re all one of a kind. They make me sad and happy, I love and hate them all. I’m driving myself crazy, I can’t stop, I’m going to fall.’ Instead of just creating a piece that only highlights the trauma she went through, I’ve created artwork that not just highlights the trauma she’s been through, but also the beautiful memories she’s experienced during the pandemic. Therefore, I’ve painted my visual interpretation of what memories would look like, and would like to dedicate this piece to Mishalle to remind her that she should also dedicate some moments of your life to visualise your own painting.
3a.
Jerry SoucyTriage Policy, Death, Dying, DNR, Ventilators, 2020 Digital video
I’m glad for the chance to share this work specifically, and Death Nurse more generally. My practice includes presenting topics related to serious illness and end of life to diverse audiences that range from family caregivers under stress to experienced clinicians to people who are curious or interested for whatever reason. I want to take on the issues straight up no bullshit, and humor is a (risky) way for me to try that feels right. The finished scripted videos are the most refined versions of my approach. I also use the images and story lines in live presentations, with a looser narration. I like the chance to integrate elements of comics, animated cartoons, stand up comedy, simple (effective) graphics and other elements in a way that I hope gets attention and is engaging. I put a lot of “information” in any given video or presentation, and there’s nothing “dummied down” because I respect the audience. At the same time with regard to any of these works as teaching tools, I think the real measure is whether or not an item, group, or theme in the content activates a deeper interest. That’s what I’m going for, anyway.
3b. Ollie Biggins
Untitled, 2022 Drawing on wood
4a.
Angela
Kelly
Nothing to celebrate here COV-ID 19 Balloons, 2021 Dry-point etching, water colour, ink and collage
I am motivted to inform the ‘public’ to the tough time of being a health care workers during Covid. Also I love the idea that another person / artist will be be responding to my art work.
I am a Registered Nurse that has worked in a busy Metropolitan Emergency Department for 25 yrs. I increased my working hours from 5 days to 7 days a fortnight to assist during the increased staff requirements. The last 2 years have been relentless with full Emergency Departments, excessive staff sick leave, constant requests to do overtime, burn out etc.... However, my colleges have been my saviour with their resilence, grit and determination to get the job done while maintaining professional and compassionate with a sense of humour mixed in.
4b.
Angelina Innocent
On the Brink of Bursting, hom-age to Angela, 2022 Assemblage: found object, polymer clay, armature wire, acrylic paint, pencil, felt, embroidery, paint pen, balloon, polystyrene, cosmetics and twine
I feel overwhelmingly honored to have been given the opportunity to work with Angela – her submission really moved me, and I was delighted to see that there were some cross overs between our processes and conceptual thinking in that we both love working with multimedia and including subversive elements and tongue in cheek humour! As our thread of emails progressed, I thought it was quite cute that we both started to call each other Ange – a nickname I let only people close to me use. I was very eager to please Angela and make sure she was happy with my response, but in the end, she was so grateful to simply be heard and responded to. I hold this experience very closely to my heart and I hope others will appreciate the vulnerability that the nurses, midwives and students have shared.
5a. Danielle kiriati zen tangle and Turning it around, 2022 Digital illustration
All works created using procreate program on iPad. First submission is a ‘zen tangle’ representing Melbourne Lockdown. The second submission called’ Turning it Around’ represents the responsibility nurses felt through the pandemic to turn what felt like such a negative experience into something positive, supporting one another through difficult times and those around us. The last two submissions were my gut responses to events in the community.
I am a theatre nurse, who experienced like others the fear and anxiety associated with nursing during a pandemic.
5b. Jessica Guo
For Danielle, 2022 Gouache, watercolour and graphite
on paper
During my chats with Danielle, she recalled an incident where a protester had spat on her colleague. She expressed her frustration during the peak of the anti-vaccine protests, feeling betrayed, feeling that many of these protesters forgot that there was a person behind the profession. This was an emotion felt that I wanted to validate through this work. What she wanted out of this experience was to tell audiences that as healthcare workers they were, “trying their best” under uncertain circumstances. Throughout the semester, we discussed this idea of positionality being the active process of giving others our attention, acknowledging plurality of self and others, and to respect the expertise of another. This was something I wanted to incorporate somehow into my work, and I thought something that would best demonstrate that is tabula scalata, as it can only be seen fully if the viewer physically moves positions.
During our chat, she described making art as “her savior”, recalling the one thing that kept her together throughout all this was a watercolouring and digital drawing Facebook group that she joined. The work takes elements from her zentangle submission she made in that group. Using art as therapy and finding communities on the online space due to the lockdowns, was something I very much related to, and was a moment in time that I wanted to archive for Danielle, to archive the feeling of relief, comfort, and self-care she experienced through her own making.
6a.
Lynne Evans Abbott Untitled, 2022-2021
Framed photograph and poem
It has been a crazy few years in my profession as a Registered Nurse. I turned to writing as a form of expression - and expulsion - of such intense feelings of fear, exhaustion and frustration. I had to find a release, and found poetry a wonderful creative way to express myself. It may not be Byron or Yeats - but the creative process was definitely therapeutic and fun and kept my soul a little saner! And it’s not over … will it ever end!!
6b.
Kelly Hussey-SmithThe view from here, 2022 Inkjet photograph
Lynne writes that isolation is confronting because we are faced with ourselves, but ‘sometimes the silence is nurturing’. I wanted to produce a response for Lynne that drew on my own experience of lightness and dark during the isolation of the pandemic yet offered a ‘nurturing silence’. During the pandemic I spent months photographing the outside world from my kitchen window. I think this image holds the silence Lynne was referring to.
7a.
Mim Johnson Teardrop, 2021 Ceramic vessel
My name is Mim. I am a Nurse, mother, carer and amateur ceramicist. Throughout the pandemic I continued to produce pottery as an outlet from the chaos at work. I work in anaesthetics, pain consulting, and a leader in vaccination.
‘Teardrop’ represents the fear, disbelief and sorrow in lost experience with family, loss of our patients and pivot in career trajectory for so many of our nursing colleagues. The gold lustre tears carry the burden of the pandemic, juxtaposed to the optimism of eventual happy tears we all so desperately hope for.
7b. Koa Wamsteker Catching Your Teardrops, 2022 Ceramic
When I discussed with Mim about her work, she explained how overwhelming and disorganised the covid situation made her career and personal life. Mim described how her artwork was a work she create impulsively as an outlet to get away from the hardships of the medical system and to give time to herself which she couldn’t have when at work. Talking with Mim was fascinating and eye-opening and because of this I made my work in response to hers as an addition, so her intent and emotions were retained
8a.
Xander Savage
We are the Front-line, 2022 Marker and fine liner on paper
8b. Debra Higgens Survival, 2022
Digitally designed collage papers and analogue collage on wood
From my discussion with Xander, I truly appreciated how hard it as been for emergency departments throughout the pandemic. In the face of new safety protocols, ever increasing patients numbers with complex health needs, and continual change being made to routine processes, I heard from Xander of the immense belief in patient care and the professionalism held by nurses. I also saw the importance of having a support system both at work and at home in the face of overwhelming pandemic circumstance which can diminish even the strongest coping energy until our carers need our support.
Stephanie Vienet
See, Hear, Speak No Covid, 2021 Watercolour painting
This artwork was created in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep after completing a week of challenging night duty shifts. My body clock was out of synch so I started watercolour painting at 2am as a form of mindfulness and relaxation. My picture was inspired by the pandemic in response to the rising number of covid hospital admissions in Melbourne during the Delta outbreak. I was feeling increasingly stressed and fatigued by the long 12 hour shifts in full PPE, ongoing staff shortages and missed meal breaks.
The Three Wise Monkeys offers a light-hearted, satirical reflection on the pandemic and sympathises with anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by pandemic fatigue. When things feel like they are getting too much, sometimes it can be helpful to take a break and try to focus on something else other than the pandemic by making a commitment to ‘See, Hear, Speak No Covid’.
9a.
9b.
Clare McCracken
Seen, Heard, Spoken, 2022
Found bell jar with printed paper
Steph and I met at a bar so that we could drink white wine while she shared her incredible experiences as both a midwife and intensive care nurse during the pandemic. I gave birth four days before Melbourne’s second and longest lockdown in 2020 so I knew our stories would be intertwined. It was a difficult time to have a baby. Services such as prenatal classes and mothers groups were cancelled, partners were only allowed into the hospital for short periods of time, appointments with specialists such as lactation consultants were moved to zoom, and for the first four months of my daughter’s life we were separated from our network of friends and family. For Steph and her colleagues, the isolating conditions that I encountered translated to an incredible increase in physical and emotional workload. Cancellation of prenatal classes meant that women and birthing people arrived ill prepared and scared for birth, unaware of their options which ultimately saw more birth complications. The exclusion of partners put additional pressure on nurses who became responsible for menial tasks such as fetching a glass of water. Finally, the absence of family and friends from our lives meant that nurses were very often the only people there to provide advice and support. Postnatal depression and domestic violence increased during the pandemic. Nurses, particularly during lockdowns, were at the frontline of this increase, listening, supporting and directing people towards specialised services.
For the first four months of my baby’s life I wrote down all the questions I asked nurses, all the websites I visited, and all the google searches I made. Seen, Heard, Spoken captures this mass of anxious questions on tiny strips of paper entangled in a large bell jar. The collective swirling questions speak to the extraordinary physical and emotional workload of nurses throughout the pandemic and the integral role they played in supporting mothers/parents and babies throughout the pandemic. The title responds to Steph’s artwork but also highlights the fact that for me, and most other Melbournian’s who had babies throughout the pandemic, Steph and her colleagues were often the only people who could make us feel seen and listened to. They were also often the only people we could share our difficulties with.
2022 ARCHIVES OF FEELING RMIT DESIGN HUB