A sculpture made with the echoes of accidents, mishaps and slips. An inventory of strange events that tells the stories of things that went wrong.
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UCLH Arts commissioned artist Simon Faithfull to create an innovative and challenging artwork called Accident Book which chronicles, through text and drawing, in the form of a book, all the accidents that have occurred in the artist’s life. This was placed within 7 Accident and Emergency departments across London.
The idea behind placing it within an A&E, apart from its obvious content, is a reference to people’s hidden curiosity when in a waiting room or A&E department and their need to communicate their own private drama. This curiosity stems from wanting to know the reason for a fellow human’s visit to the A&E. Accident Book enables them to satisfy this curiosity and at the same time contribute to an art work. An A&E ward can be a very soulless environment - reducing the patient to an item on a slow-moving conveyor-belt of care. As with other aspects of Faithfull’s practice, Accident Book aims to humanize what can otherwise be a very alienating environment of the A&E waiting room.
