Evoking the spirit of Charles Hastings
This notebook is all about my latest commission "The Endless Toast" The commission is dedicated to Sir Charles Hastings, one of Worcester’s most treasured and notable citizens. Dr. Hastings founded the British Medical Association in the boardroom at Worcester Royal Infirmary on the 19th July 1832. This act led to new, safer technological practices and professional health-care away from quack doctors and dodgy surgical procedures. Some of his followers and critics said he was responsible for nothing short of “the entire alleviation of the sufferings of humanity.” (McMenemey pg942 16/4/66 BMJ) In one speech he also alluded to the desire for a brighter future where health-care could be provided by the state. "I trust that henceforward the profession will be connected as it ought to be with the State, this being the great body which has to guide the onward progress of medical science."(Hastings - ibid McMenemey) The Worcester Royal Infirmary has now been taken up and refurbished by the University of Worcester. To celebrate the new Castle Street campus, artists, writers and performers have been commissioned to respond to the site.
The Endless Toast is a mantra Si Monumentum quaerus circumspice, it is translated as “If you are looking for a monument, look around you.” This work is not only a celebration of the new University campus and Sir Charles Hastings but also a warning about the new political challenges and the potential erosion of our welfare state and the NHS.
see
www.nathanielpitt.com for more details.
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