182 days

182 days - Eva Fernandez

Heathcote Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November to 19 December 2012

Heathcote Reception Home was established in 1929 as a place of treatment and convalescence and represented progressive attitudes in the management of mental illness at the time. This site with its magnificent outlooks and a country atmosphere provided patients a refuge far from the busy city. Heathcote, as it became known, was focused on patient discharge rather than an asylum for long term residence. 182 days was the maximum period of time a patient was permitted to stay at Heathcote, this being 6 months. Patients were then either released or sent to Claremont Hospital which meant being certified insane with a very bleak future.

This exhibition is a response to the Heathcote site as a mental health hospital with particular reference to early treatments and therapies. Despite the fact that these were considered new age for mental patients at the time, as they are observed today, it becomes difficult to reconcile the isolation rooms, straitjackets, sharp stainless steel implements, electro-shock therapy and chemically induced coma treatments.   

reception, 2012, archival inkjet print, 215cm x 70 cm each

182 days, 2012, DVD, 33 minutes

compartmentalise, 2012, wooden and acrylic suitcases, nickel fittings and goose down

check retractor, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 165cm 

lobe forceps, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 148cm 

nurse, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 70cm 

straitjacket, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 70cm 

tongue depressor, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 70cm 

check forceps, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 200cm 

Ferguson's gag, 2012, archival inkjet print, 70cm x 200cm 

narcosis, 2012, cast iron bed and goose down, size variable

narcosis, 2012, cast iron bed and goose down, size variable

painting the clouds with sunshine, 2012, DVD, 1 hr 49 minutes

Painting the clouds with sunshine, 2012, video, 33minutes

This video work is a long, slow moving image of clouds which gradually move from a sunny brightly lit day to a grey stormy, gloomy sky. It was developed as a response to a newspaper article in the Western Mail on June 16, 1932. A young man dressed only in his shirt and underpants had climbed to the top of the 400ft wireless mast and was singing a popular song at the time, “I’m painting the clouds with sunshine.” When all attempts to persuade him to descend failed, authorities switched off the lights. He immediately climbed down, and was admitted to Heathcote Hospital.