David Anthony Hall

Please help transform the atmosphere of this medical facilities by humanising the environment from cold & sterile to warm & welcoming.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/senezio/public…

Background:

In the past five years, I have been working on a number of public art projects. In particular, my focus has been on producing a body of work that is exquisitely detailed so as it can be printed up to the size of 20 x 5 meters. These large-scale works have been created with medical environments in mind.My vision is to create a shift in the way people view medical facilities.I would like to banish the austere and sterile medical environment transforming the atmosphere to warm and welcoming, humanising the environment, a concept that is gaining influence in the public art sector.

Below are three images from the recently opened Marie Curie Hospice.This wonderful facility features 50 bespoke pieces from my archives including the reception area, public areas, back offices and patient bedrooms. This project represents my largest single donation of work and is one of my proudest achievements to date. Most importantly I’m delighted with the feedback from the patients and visitors, just last week Lady Cotton wrote “Liz tells me that she gets daily thanks for the wonderful environment in the hospice and how much the patients and their visitors appreciate all that you did to make it so special. Your photographs are a constant source of pleasure.”

To date I have raised over £35,000 GBP for charity from the sale of my work and I have donated works in excess of £40,000 GBP for various projects including Marie Curie and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

The Project:

Recently I visited a newly completed Hospice in East Sussex which is run by a local charity. Like Marie Curie all care is offered free of charge regardless of patients’ circumstances, but the NHS only contributes 15% of the £3.5 million annual running costs. For the remainder, the Hospice relies on the generosity of its supporters. You will see from the pictures that the new space is quite something however the walls are quite bare and having spent their entire cash reserves there isn’t any money left in the pot to commission any art for the walls.

I have identified six spaces in the communal reception area which would benefit from bespoke artwork and a further three spaces in other public areas.This does not include the twenty bedrooms or any of the therapy rooms.The sizes of the images vary but they are all large scale up to a maximum 5 meters wide in some cases. You may have noticed my target is set at a modest £2,000 and I plan to supply one artist proof from that funding. This piece, installed will bear a further cost of £1,000 which I will personally fund. Ultimately, I hope that the public will get behind my campaign and the rewards which I am offering to each pledge received.Together if we could raise in the region of £10,000 this amount would significant difference to the environment of the public areas. £25,000 could see the entire facility enjoy the art work it so deservedly needs to make it the tranquil space which will benefit the patients throughout the facility.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/senezio/public…

Collaboration – An Artist’s Perspective – How to save money on public art projects

With his second two man show, for 2013, due to open in May , contemporary landscape artist David Anthony Hall questions why more art installations are not planned into the design of the UK’s new building developments.

‘It is essential for art to be considered at the design stage of any build’ said Lady Cotton, ‘We have been most fortunate to be able to raise funds specifically for art purposes and as we believe strongly in the benefits of art for the patients wellbeing, it is imperative we plan it into our building costs so we don’t subsequently wastes precious budget’. Because the art installations were planned it into the design phase, the charities project manager, Simon Whelan believes the charity saved as much as 10% on installation costs.

Whilst it makes sense in a budget conscious environment to plan all aspects of building projects, including art, it frustrates David to see how little this planning appears to happen.

‘Britain has made a significant contribution to the evolution of architecture over the years and we are responsible for some truly stunning buildings.’ said David ‘If these building projects were able to accrue a percentage of the overall cost or even budget a small percentage at the design phase more art could be installed from the beginning. Adding artwork retrospectively costs more and makes it far more difficult for the artist to present work to its best effect. However, I do feel we are missing a trick? Buildings have become far more sculptural in their design and sculpture is normally commissioned, planned and installed as an intrinsic part of a building. If we could consider doing the same with two-dimensional art, I believe production costs of large scale artwork like mine could be virtually halved. This means I could effectively double the scale of artwork or the number of pieces I produce.’

As the UK enters another difficult economic phase, budgets are being more closely monitored than ever before, whilst millions are still being spent on building projects each year, very few seem to consider the need to extend their budgets to include art installations as part of their building costs. In many countries around the world, including Norway, Canada, Italy and USA, law requires any new public building project to demonstrate a ‘percentage for art’ accrual, which then is used to fund art installations. The accrual percentage ranges from 1% to 2.5%, not only does this allows the designers to plan art installations in a way which guarantees arts inclusion, but it motivates artists in the knowledge art is well supported and means considered choices are made to fit the build.

Full Article here: LINK

Self 1991 – 2003

Twenty two years ago I started a series of Self Portraits, the young man above left had turned the camera on himself and asked a number of questions including: Who are you? Where do you come from? What should you do with your life? Where do you belong?…

I recall I didn’t have a clue, I was a very confused young man, I certainly didn’t have any inner peace and my adolescence was pure torture. In 1987, following the death of a close friend after a prolonged battle with cancer I was at my lowest. From as early as I can remember a shadow had hung over me and I was sure it would now swallow me whole. Convinced that I too would die from cancer, because of my poor genes I decided it was also reasonable to think I would inherit mental illness, alcoholism and anything else my warped mind could conjure up. With this in mind I contacted the agency responsible for my adoption expecting them to confirm all manner of genetic disorders. So at the age of 18 I took the first step and exchanged correspondence albeit anonymously with my birth mother. Not one to rush into things it took me a further 15 years to take the second step and actually agree to meet Maura face to face.

Full article: LINK

I’m delighted to announcing FOREST FORM an exhibition of Stone Sculpture by friend and fellow Artist Paul Vanstone & my large scale Images.

Paul and I had wanted to put on a joint show of this kind for some time now in fact ever since we were first introduced to each others work back in 2008. Having done a couple of concept gardens at Chelsea Flower Show we were on the look out for a suitable space large enough to house both our works when at last years show Simon the owner of the Stone Theatre Gallery popped by to say hello! The rest is as they say is history!

The exhibition celebrates the relationship that we both have with the ancient and natural world, a relationship that inspires and defines our work. When you consider trees pre date dinosaurs by some 60 million years which was in roughly the same period that Paul’s stone was being formed and then you compare Paul’s Indian Rain Forest Marble

to my Spring/Summer forest pictures or his Iranian Onyx to any of my Autumn pieces you begin to see patterns beyond the obvious and you like me might be able to use these patterns to ask and answer some larger problems, about being, conciseness about the nature of the world the nature of being!

It always surprises me that we humans who live for 70 odd years can so comfortably rattle of such absurd numbers; consider historically I’m ignoring the millions of years between the formation of Paul’s stone and the appearance of trees and then fast forwarding hundreds of millions of years to the present then I’m back tracking to when we showed up and commenting on how we feel like we have the right to call this planet ours over every other living thing extinct or not. The ability to think abstractly does seem to set us apart from the rest of life as we experience it but I always maintain or inability to use this gift wisely will ultimately be our undoing and I believe in time the earth will shake off mans grip and play host to God knows what type of beings in the distant future. Of course time as a concept is profoundly confusing!

You can visit the FOREST FORM exhibition until 12th May from 10 – 4 pm Monday to Saturday at

The Stone Theatre Gallery,

Newnham Terrace,

Hercules Road,

London SE1 7DR

Forest Form Exhibition