Bloom

I'm not usually a fan of modern art, but I recently saw a series of images that I really liked. Some of you will know that earlier this year I made a number of trips to London as part of a project I was involved with at work. Specifically I was visiting the Biomdical Research Centre for Mental Health at Denmark Hill. On the walls of the centre were a series of pictures that had been specially commissioned for the building.

On one of my trips I eventually spotted the sign that described the series, which is called Bloom and is by the artist Magda Kaggwa. The description reads: Magdalena Kaggwa's objective for the BRC Nucleus commission was to produce a series of six prints portraying the human skull gradually consumed by flowers, intensifying with each image and progressing from a bud in the initial stage to a full flowering bloom which engulfs the brain area in the final print. This concept aims to convey the advancement of mental illness in an individual through the invasion of the skull by flowers, exploring the beauty and complexity of the mind and confronting the psychiatric and social stigmas that inhabit perceptions of mental health issues whilst encouraging a deeper and more sympathetic understanding.

I'm not sure I buy into all that but I do know that I really like the series. My favourite (and the image I used in this post) is number 4, you can see the whole sequence here.