An exhibition of photographs by Zoe Barker is to be held at the Full Circle Exhibition Space at St Mary’s Hospital from Tuesday, giving a glimpse behind the doors of the Convalescent Home for Officers at Osborne House, East Cowes.
In 1904, King Edward VII gifted Osborne House, the former residence and home of Queen Victoria, to the Nation for it to be reopened as ‘The King Edward VII Convalescent Home for Officers’. It continued to perform this role and function through two world wars and almost the whole of the 20th century finally closing its doors as a convalescent home in October 2000.
As part of a larger arts project between ‘QuayCrafts’ and English Heritage in 2015, artist photographer Zoe Barker was given access to these spaces. The photographs she took, and the subsequent exhibition, is a contemporary response to the present situation, condition and environment she found there during her ‘residency’. The photographs show that part of Osborne House that was a Convalescent Home during the 20th century and where echoes of that time still remain.
Of her photography Zoe says:
“I specialise in domestic interiors, focusing on the beauty of ‘everyday details’, often overlooked, giving the viewer an idea of the people who occupied places before us – portraits in absentia. Whilst the Convalescent Home spaces are institutional in nature, used by many over many years, they still resonate with lives lived and stories untold. There is poignancy in a once-valued object or place, now abandoned. We’re reminded of the transience of things and the fragility of life. The objects and spaces remain after we have gone as an echo of our previous presence – we are only passing through.”
Zoe loves the qualities of film and shoots on medium format cameras. She used a Mamiya RZ67 for this particular project.
Based on the Isle of Wight, Zoe has exhibited in London, Bristol, Dorset and Devon. She supplies images for the ‘Millennium Picture Library’ and has been published in Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, New Scientist, independent Magazine and The Daily Telegraph. Her series House of Two Sisters won the Documentary Category at the British Life Photography Awards 2015.
Zoe is collecting personal stories about the Convalescent Home. If you know someone who convalesced or worked there she would love to hear from you. Contact her at [email protected] or on her Facebook page – ‘On An Island Photography’.
This exhibition is presented by Healing Arts.
Tuesday 5th April – Friday 1st July 2016.
Admission FREE. Open Daily 9.00am – 9.00pm.
