Art Centred

The waiting room in IBAC serves a diverse community of people who regularly utilise the care provided by IBAC. Staff noted that these patients, including multiple vulnerable groups in society, needed to feel welcome and safe without alienating other patients.

Thanks to the generosity of the St Vincent’s community through a community fundraising initiative led by an IBAC patient, money was raised to engage Liam Benson, a socially engaged contemporary artist who is experienced in working with diverse community groups, running creative workshops and producing powerful and engaging artworks. Liam was asked to produce an original artwork for the waiting room, developed from a creative engagement workshop with patients and staff from IBAC. Benson guided participants to generate imagery that represented their memories and associations with Darlinghurst and the hospital community, along with significant stories of special people and relationships who have been part of their lives. The workshops provided a meditative, introspective and reflective space where people could reflect on what they appreciated about themselves and what they value in life. It also highlighted the appreciation shared between patients and staff reflecting the relationships developed though time spent in the unit.

Post workshop, Benson translated the images into sequins and beadwork, taking special care to find the right relationship between each element, so that the constellations threaded together to become an embroidered symphony of figures, motifs and texture that commemorated the sharing of love, compassion, empathy, friendship and family. 

The use of sewn outcomes and sequins is a direct reference to the queer community which Liam and many of the patients who visit IBAC are a part of. Historically, the queer community has embraced light reflective, accessible materials such as sequins in club and performance culture. This joyful medium has become synonymous with the vibrancy and resilience of this community. While community sewing projects, particularly community made quilts, are part of the early community engagement projects remembering and recording the AIDS crisis.

The completed work Heart Centred is now installed in the IBAC waiting room providing a burst of colour and imagery that has powerful community and culture references but can also be viewed as a complex fabric based artwork that provides novel imagery for people to engage with each time they visit the waiting room. As Benson says, “I like the idea that visitors will see something new every time they look. The imagery all had personal meaning to the artists who created it, but (the images) are also here to be shared and interpreted. The figures represent people of significance, but it doesn’t matter exactly who they are. Instead of reading the work like a book, I hope it sparks associations people have had with their own pivotal and important relationships that we all experience within our lives."

Left to right:

Liam leads patients and staff in creative development workshop held in the IBAC unit.

Liam discusses details of the work with patients and staff who participated in the project.

Liam Benson in collaboration with IBAC patients and staff, Sarah, Rebekah, Cindy, Belinda, Dianne, Lynne, Jessie, Alo, Li Wei and Pedro, Heart Centred, 2013, textile, sequins and beads.