It can be easy to knock “immersive” art experiences. Many are outrageously expensive, made for Instagram and making Vincent van Gogh roll over in his grave. But the idea behind the new Hospital of Emotionswas more resourceful than exploitative: giving visual artists the chance to take over 80 spaces, examination rooms and operating chambers included, in the now-defunct St Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles. The building is scheduled for renovation into a behavioural health centre.
The process was fairly democratic. The curator Yaara Sachs, who runs a pop-up agency called House of Art and Dreams, held an open call for proposals and chose around 70 artists. She selected a few gallery-sanctioned artists alongside street artists, set designers, fashion stylists and students. Every artist, established or not, received $4,000 for their project and up to $10,000 to cover materials.
The entrance to Hospital of Emotions at St Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles Courtesy of Hospital of Emotions
Unlike the last major hospital takeover here ten years ago, when the art consultant John Wolf brought a series of unnerving (or actually bloody) works by artists such as Max Hooper Schneider and Tala Madani into a hopelessly grimy institution in West Adams, this one has a cheerier and more cartoon-y approach (think Pixar’s Inside Out).
“Normally when you go to the hospital, you treat the body, but this time the exhibition is about healing your heart,” Saachs says. She has divided the pop-up installations into different “departments” dedicated to emotional states such as joy, hope, fear and anger, with the idea that visitors will move through them and achieve some kind of catharsis.
The results are, as you might predict, all over the place. While some black-light or inflatable artworks scream Burning Man—more emoji than emotion—others put the intensity of the hospital setting to good, playful or serious use.
From the Fear Department
Cosmodernism's installation in room 77 of Hospital of Emotions Courtesy of Hospital of Emotions
The Polish artist Kamil Cazpiga, working under the moniker Cosmodernism, has lined a small room with a grid of television screens that feature maze-like, bulging, fluid patterns that seem to be abstract. They are not. By putting paint drops under a high-powered microscope, he has exposed the unctuous and oozing amoeba-like beauty beneath the surface of painting.
From the Resilience Department
Dioz's installation in room 20 of Hospital of Emotions Courtesy of Hospital of Emotions
The Israeli street artist Guy “Dioz” Bloom has created a tender scene between a sick, grimacing patient in a hospital scene and what appears to be his anxious family members. But instead of playing out this storyline with human characters, Bloom has created carnivalesque, Play-Doh-coloured, horned monsters that he calls Techno Trolls. The monsters are fantastic; the emotions all too real.
From the Joy Department
Installation by Yaara Sachs in room 12 of Hospital of Emotions Courtesy of Hospital of Emotions
The curator Yaara Sachs has contributed her own simple yet exuberant piece: a cluster of IV stations where she has injected the sterile, saline water with different coloured dyes. The fluid bags now look like rainbow ice popsicles, if you ignore the antique operating lamps overhead.
From the Sadness Department
Installation by Pablo Thomas in room 28 of Hospital of Emotions Courtesy of Hospital of Emotions
The Spanish art director and artist Pablo Thomas has covered the walls, floor and ceiling of a small hospital room with realistic paintings that look like family snapshots: a childhood bike ride here, father and daughter dance there, newborn’s arrival home here. The flood of images suggests the rush of memories that might overcome a person in their final moments.
From the Compassion Department
Installation by Napo in room 51 of Hospital of Emotions Courtesy of Hospital of Emotions
The Los Angeles-born, Brazil-based and highly itinerant artist Napo has created fantastic, life-sized figures with human bodies and bird heads. They carry birdhouses on their back like migrants carry pieces of their home with them.
- Hospital of Emotions, until 31 July, St Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles
