A hospital is a place that draws out certain core emotions—hope and fear. Some people come to hospitals looking forward to getting cured from their ailments. Others arrive with the fear that this might be the last place that they visit. A lot of times, people stay in hospitals for extended periods. In addition, white hospital walls and being cooped up in a room for a long time can be fairly exhausting.
Most hospitals have chapels where relatives, friends, and patients themselves can come to. Here they find peace of mind, pray to God, and hope that the experience puts their hearts and minds at ease. This gives them a breath of fresh air and certain level of relief. However, for some who do not have such divine connections, where do they go? What could they do?
This was exactly what Catherine Opie and Cleveland Clinic Curator, Joanne Cohen, had in mind. In one of Cleveland Clinics main hallways, Opie set up a gallery of her enlarged photos for public viewing. The photos consisted of landscape, portraiture, and images of celestial bodies that can take its viewers to comforting memories or aspirations. Opie and Cohen made this exhibit under the principle that “medicine cures and art heals the spirit,” as Cohen put it. They wanted to establish an engaging experience for the staff, patients, and hospital visitors with the art. When people are having a hard time, physically, emotionally, or psychologically, this hallway of photos would be something for them to look at and find peace of mind, too.
Catherine Opie was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1961 . She graduated in 1985 with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute. Opie got her Masters in 1988 from California Institute of the Arts and has been teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2001. This photographer is known for her unusual take on contemporary photography. In her work, Opie is able to present a documentary-like effect and, at the same time, express the social trends in modern-day America. She captures peoples’ ways of behaving, including relationships with others, even with themselves.
Some of her works that she was known for included portraits of densely tattooed and pierced bodies of individuals in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community . She has also taken photos of couples, crowds, and teams, with their environment at the main backdrop. Opie has also widely photographed and documented Los Angeles for the last 25 years. She captured images of houses, people, architecture, and landscapes from this area.
Opie’s works have received criticisms, one of which is that it serves a limited aspect of society. Her work was also known to be expensive. These comments have bothered her, but at the same time, gave her the motivation to set up the exhibition in Cleveland Clinic. She believed that art needs to be made public and that exhibit was her way of expressing her belief.
Photography has become a very popular form of art at this time, especially with the fact that social media has been encouraging it for quite some time. People’s works of countless styles and expression are now being exhibited electronically, thus are widely available to the public. However, Catherine Opie’s works already has its own following. Photography enthusiasts would certainly be able to find inspiration in her unique work.
Works Cited
Art21. Catherine Opie. 2012. December 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/catherine-opie>.
Walker, Alissa. Catherine Opie Discusses Her Three L.A. Art Exhibits. 14 March 2013. December 2014. <http://www.laweekly.com/2013-03-14/art-books/catherine-opie-photographer/>.
