Saint Wanderer’s Hospital depicts a fictional tale birthed from the artist’s inherent need to find splendour in the idea of sickness.
Rooted first from her own words, Katie used the idea of illustrating as a form of personal art therapy by immersing herself in the realm of the otherworldly characters. Every aspect of each scene was created by Katie alone, from building and designing the sets to printing and hand-colouring the final images. In this act, over the year long course of the projects creation, the artist managed to make certain turmoil in her personal life bearable.
In the world of the hospital, the artist adapts the role of medical photographer – creating accurate portraits of each character’s condition as a record for the hospitals future use.
The final series comprises of 8 ‘specimen cased’ photographic prints and a 9 minute Super 8 film that is subtitled by the artist’s original fictions tale.
‘The nurses report that the patient is suffering from frequent delusions, manifesting themselves in a bird song which is howled from his bed. The anaesthetic is administered. As he drifts he sees Bluebird and Lover; Lover fleets, and Bluebird falls.
A hospital, a reigning, Mother Nightingale’s sanctuary.’
About the Artist
Katie Eleanor is a photographic artist based in London. Her practice revolves largely around illustrating fictional narratives. Using analog photography, the resulting black and white prints are then meticulously hand-coloured. She graduated with First Class BA (hons) Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster (2012-2015). Katie’s work has received press by associations such as Yahoo/Flickr and The Royal Photographic Society, and her fashion stories have been published by magazines such as Notion and Pigeons & Peacocks.
