Royal Free Hospital – Rosetta Life – 2003

Helen Marshall worked on the oncology wards with patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment. It was in many ways the ‘frontline’ of the NHS, and an extremely challenging environment within which to work.

Helen worked closely with patients and devised a series of events and interventions as well as works which were not intended for a public audience. Here below is an extract of a transcription of a bedside conversation with a patient that soon became an installation and video piece.

“This is a city within a city with its own customs & laws, and its own uniforms and regulations and people who come here are voluntary prisoners because they hope that those who inhabit this city will help to them to recover. How far we’ve come, and all the incredible medical advances and yet being in this relatively modern hospital its still ageing already and its bleak, a little bleak and of course they’ve got to keep it clean, so anything that brings in the outside world one would hope would be in some small way a help towards recovery of health”

Clive Barnett , in conversation at The Royal Free Hospital September 2003

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