With products ranging from a telephone table converted to accommodate healthcare equipment to an “uneasy” chair that motivates its user not to sit down, the HOSPITAbLe Collection fuses everyday home objects with healthcare.
What challenges will we face as our welfare state gives way to a society in which we are increasingly expected to organise our own healthcare? Will healthcare still be affordable and available in the future? The expected shift from hospital to home will potentially impact our physical and emotional relationships with our living space.
The works in The HOSPITAbLe collection, designed by Paul Chamberlain and based on earlier research from Sheffield Hallam University, try to connect the cultural conventions of the domestic and clinical environments. For example, the collection contains a wooden walking frame that explores the values and qualities of craft against the pragmatic industrial aesthetic. The exhibition creates a channel through which societal assumptions related to ageing and healthcare can be made visible, explored and challenged.
This exhibition took place at the Theatrum Anatomicum in the Waag on the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam.
