Art is an essential part of the human experience, adding joy and beauty to life. In the health care world, it can help nursing, pharmacy, public health and medical students develop empathy, sensitivity and compassion and be more in sync with the world around them.
There’s no better place to bring that connection between humanities and health care together than at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, where digital, sculptural, photographic and painted pieces are on display for all to enjoy.
Health Sciences Innovation Building art walk
The Health Sciences Innovation Building is home of the El Mirador Project, a visionary public art program brought to life by Michael D. Dake, MD, senior vice president for the University of Arizona Health Sciences.
“We wanted to bring the transformative power of art directly to our learning spaces, making the Health Sciences Innovation Building the university’s home for video art and science through the El Mirador Project,” Dake said. “We have pieces by Ragnar Kjartansson, Jennifer Steinkamp, teamLab, Bill Viola and now our first commissioned piece – Untangled Shadows, the newest creation of renowned artist Jim Campbell.”
El Mirador Project art can be found on the first, second and third floors of the Health Sciences Innovation Building.
Created specifically for the soaring open space of the HSIB Forum, Campbell’s “Untangled Shadows” is a 21-by-21-foot LED light sculpture made of 3,000 pixels that flash to create the abstract but identifiable images of flying birds or swimmers. The display will change every three months.
Also suspended from the Forum ceiling is Kjartansson’s “Figures in Landscape.” The video installation includes seven distinct scenes for each day of the week. On any given day, only that specific day’s scene will be seen. For example, every Wednesday, white-coated figures hang out on a rocky beach. The other six days are displayed in Room 306 on the third floor and open to the public as long as no classes or events are scheduled in that space.
From 3:30-5 p.m. weekdays “Figures in Landscape” makes way for “Blind Eye 3,” which features a thick forest of birch trees. It’s Steinkamp’s nod to Gustav Klimt and Vincent van Gogh. The title refers to what it’s like to gaze with one eye closed and the resulting optical echoes left behind when leaves fall.
On the second floor above the open Forum is “Gold Waves,” a constant, undulating ocean of yellow with no fixed focal point by teamLab, a Japan-based art studio that pulls together artists, programmers, engineers, animators, mathematicians, architects and graphic designers. “Gold Waves” is meant to evoke continuity – of time, water and the flow of life.
Near the elevators, Viola’s haunting “Isolde’s Ascension (The Shape of Light in Space After Death)” depicts a barely illuminated woman floating in water. The piece is part of Viola’s “Love/Death: the Tristan Project,” a series inspired by Richard Wagner’s opera, Tristan und Isolde.
