Exhibition review: A Passion for Plants

A Passion for Plants
Angela Easterling
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
Until 30 June

STAR RATING: 5/5

Who would have thought it? Just off the Fulham Road, west London, heaving with traffic and pouring with rain is the most beautiful exhibition of photograms by Angela Easterling, writes Kathryn Stone.

Finding our way to the gallery we were overtaken by a man on a trolley being pushed by porters, reminding us that this exhibition space is a very busy hospital.

Alex Minton, arts co-ordinator of Hospital Arts, explained that Chelsea and Westminster hospital – the largest naturally ventilated atrium in the world – has long welcomed visual art, music, drama and story-telling as a clinically-proven way of enhancing well-being.

Very modern pieces are juxtaposed with classical paintings to form a creative web around the stark clinical walls.

Easterling’s pictures – photograms of plants – add an ethereal, spiritual dimension to what is often a very raw physical experience. This exhibition and the hospital’s general approach are both highly recommended.

So what is the difference between a photogram and a photograph? The former is created without a camera or lens, simply by placing the object on a coated paper and exposing it to light to form an image.

Kathryn Stone is head of Voice UK