DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ORGAN DONATION SCULPTURE AT FORTH VALLEY ROYAL HOSPITAL

Drawing from a public engagement day in the hospital (pre-pandemic) and conversations with families of donors, transplant recipients, patients awaiting transplant and hospital staff, Hans K Clausen has developed an idea of a ‘floating’ translucent artwork. The ‘cloud like’ sculpture will be formed from signatures and hand-written names collected from across the hospital community and from individuals whose lives have been affected by organ donation. These will be cut from brightly coloured laser acrylic.

The artwork, to be displayed in the atrium, will publicly recognise the life changing contribution that local organ donors have made and raise awareness of the value of organ donation to the people of Forth Valley. It will be based on several themes including reflection and contemplation, individuality and inter-connectedness, strength and fragility, gratitude and joy, outward and upward looking, uplifting and life affirming.

According to Hans K Clausen:  “I see the sculpture as an abstract and organic form of memorial. It will not list particular dates or formally document specific individuals, Instead it will bring together a community of 365 people, recorded only by their signature or first name. Their placement and connection to each other will be random and unspecified but will represent a person for each day of the year. Signatures and hand-writing like fingerprints symbolise our individuality but signatures also represent the agreements, contracts, commitments and bonds we create with other people.”

The sculptor has been working closely with members of the NHS Forth Valley Organ Donation Committee.  “To produce an artwork that is both a memorial and a celebration, and that will enhance the hospital environment for years to come is a challenge and a responsibility he said. “ I trust the final sculpture will do justice to all the people, stories and experiences that have contributed to its evolution and that it can communicate a narrative and legacy of generosity and hope.” 

Currently more than 145,000 people in Forth Valley have signed the register to become an organ donor. They are part of the 49.6% of the Scottish population who have said yes to donation.

About the Artist

Hans K Clausen is a graduate of Leith School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art. On graduating in 2012 he won London’s Degree Art Prize for Sculpture and an Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop new graduate award. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and has a strong interest and reputation for collaborative and socially engaged art. He was an NHS Lothian resident artist from 2015 – 2018 where amongst other projects he created The People’s Museum of Memory and Myth (www.pmmm.co.uk) winner of a 2019 Building Better Healthcare Award. He is an Art and Design Teaching Fellow at University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Open Learning, a Community Artist at St Columba’s Hospice and a hospital exhibitions curator for Tonic Arts/ELH.