CurARTive

'CurARTive' sees 'pop-up' artist's studios appear in the public spaces of hospitals with the production of the artworks taking place as the patients wait for appointments and treatment. Painting becomes performance. The artist seeks to provide well-being benefits to both patients and staff: lowering stress levels, combating boredom and offering unexpected learning opportunities proven to promote good mental health.

The act of creating the painting draws the viewer to the work space, which may be located in a calm corner of a clinic's waiting room or amidst the bustling main entrance atrium of the hospital. The viewer is warmly welcomed. Conversation is the key. The shared public space offers opportunities to discuss art practice, arts for health, encourage engagement with culture and cultural activities, along with examining the themes of the project and the narratives within the work in progress. The presence of the artist alters a clinical environment that might otherwise be unattractive, mundane or stress-inducing.

The paintings' themes reveal the fascinating secret histories of modern medicines and their hidden organic origins. Within the painted image, Burscough brings individual patients together with the natural materials from which their particular treatments have been derived, developed or synthesized. Portraits of the patients are placed in environments that speak of the origins of their treatment. Atomic structures of pharmaceutical compounds are hidden in the paintings, secret coded messages, whispered to passing chemists and clinicians. Some paintings tell stories of the heroic discovery of medications, often obscured by the trade-marked nomenclature created by the immense pharmaceutical industry, whose less than transparent, sometimes problematic practices can be seen to distract from the triumph of scientific discovery. In revealing these stories, the artist hopes to leave the patient feeling more warmly towards their treatment, as links to the natural world are established and perhaps, in gaining this understanding, the patients' anxiety centred around 'putting chemicals in my body' may be reduced.

The CurARTive Collection

Sarian, Willow and Aspirin

This painting celebrates one of the oldest medicines known to man. Extracts from willow bark have been known to help alleviate headaches, pains and fevers since antiquity. Willow was used as a medicine by ancient civilisations like the Sumerians and Egyptians. The Ebers papyrus, an ancient Eqyptian medical text, refers to willow as an anti-inflammatory or pain reliever, as does Hippocrates. The treatment was developed into a stable pharmaceutical drug at the turn of the twentieth century and became known as 'aspirin'.

Today, aspirin is often taken in low doses to help prevent strokes and heart attacks. Sarian uses aspirin as a pain killer. She is pictured with a curtain of weeping willow foliage in a nearby park.

Sarah, Soil and Tacrolimus

Sarah is pictured holding a bowl of soil. In the 1980s in Japan, a bacterium was discovered in a sample of soil. It was called Streptomyces Tsukubaensis. It was found to have immunosuppressant properties, and was developed into the drug Tacrolimus.

As a teenager, Sarah was diagnosed as having type 1 diabetes, which eventually led to her having a pancreatic transplant. Tacrolimus helps prevent Sarah's body rejecting her new organ.

During her transplant and recovery, Sarah used art to help her cope with the anxiety and stress. She created painting about her experience and even crocheted a woollen pancreas to help her focus on her healing.

John, Kale and Lutein

John has Age-Related Macular Degeneration which affects his vision. He is painted here with curly kale. Kale is a green leafy vegetable with one of the highest concentrations of the carotenoid nutrients lutein and zeaxanthin, which research suggests are beneficial to eye health and together with other nutrients may play a part in delaying the progression of AMD. You can see the atomic structure of lutein hiding among the kale leaves.

Ingrid, Sweet Clover and Warfarin

Ingrid has a common heart condition called atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disturbance. Her treatment prevents blood clotting ans is called Warfarin.

The history of Warfarin is fascinating. In the 1920s in the USA, a herd of cattle suddenly started to haemorrhage after minor procedures like horn removal. The problem was eventually traced back to the feed that they were given, a silage containing large amounts of a wild flower called sweet clover. When the sweet clover rotted down and reacted with fungi, it spontaneously created a natural anticoagulant. In the 1940s this chemical compound was isolated and synthesised and was eventually patented as Warfarin.

Interestingly, in America, sweet clover is known as honey clover because of it's sweet smell which is craeted by the same compound that acts as the medicine's precursor and also gives us the beautiful aroma of freshly cut grass. Sweet clover isn't a British native wild flower but became naturalised in the 1800s, particularly along routes used where grain was imported, including along the Manchester Ship Canal where it can still be found today.

James, Rutile and Titanium

James is pictured with a background of rutile. Rutile is the main ore from which titanium is derived. Titanium is a remarkable metal with many unusual qualities that serve to make it particularly useful in the modern world. It is used for many medical applications because of its high bio-compatibility: it is non-toxic and is not readily rejected by the body. Titanium has the highest strength-to-density ratio of any metallic element and is not magnetic so it's use is not problematic when MRI scans are required.

In James' case it is used as the cover for his pacemaker. Modern pacemakers use cutting-edge technologies to monitor the heart along with their usual job of regulating the heart beat. They can transmit a signal that can be read by a receiver in the patient's home and be sent via the internet to hospital staff for monitoring.

Titanium is also useful because as titanium dioxide it makes a very stable white pigment. It is known as Titanium White and was used for the highlights in this painting.

Sylvia and Gold

Lucy was amazed when Rheumatology staff said, "Do you know that we inject people with gold here?"! Gold is a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis which has been used since the 1930s. It dampens down the immune system that becomes over-active with this condition and can cause joint damage.

Sylvia has suffered with rheumatoid arthritis since her forties but despite this and problems with her vision, she is a keen believer in the benefits of crafting to one's well-being. She is a treasure!

The seven month long CurARTive Exhibition at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital launched as part of Manchester Science Festival 2015 and a programme of engagement activities including an evening launch event at Manchester Museum, themed public hands-on workshops, artist talks, clinical presentations and formal educational outreach was delivered. Participants ranged from primary school groups to older hospital patients, with dissemination taking place in various ways including to professional seminars and to groups of medical students.

The CurARTive project was funded by Arts Council England and took place in 2015 at Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, with collaborative support from Lime Arts, Manchester Museum and The Whitworth.