Milly Peck
Relief in Shadow Play, 2023
Wood, paint, vinyl
Max Caplin Unit, Mile End Hospital
Milly Peck’s installation at Mile End Hospital, her first commission within healthcare, extends throughout the Max Caplin Unit, which treats respiratory conditions.
The mixed media artwork is based on the tradition of hand shadow puppetry (known as ombromanie or shadowgraphy). This ancient art involves hand configurations and a single source of light to cast shadows of recognisable shapes—usually animals or flowers.
Patients at Max Caplin will encounter a series of familiar forms— cat, seagull, palm tree, street lamp, parrot, birdhouse, pineapple—that are presented along with the outline of hands and articulated fingers creating the images. A recurring circle motif represents the cone of light emitted from a torch that enable the shadows.
Along with these vignettes, the artist has included passages of wall painting and vinyl decals that evoke the moon, waves, sunsets, and clouds, and which hint at Peck’s interest in woodblock prints by the 19th century Japanese artist, Utagawa Hiroshige.
The use of shadows to amuse and entertain stretches back millennia in Asia. The simplicity and playfulness of hand shadows provides a distraction for patients in the clinic ( a “relief in shadowplay", as the artwork’s title suggests) and offers an antidote to digital games and smartphones.
The artist also draws a contrast between the high-tech, cutting edge equipment used in our hospitals, and the low tech activity of casting hand shadows for amusement.
An extension of this artwork is found on an exterior wall at Mile End, and can be viewed from the ground floor corridor near the main entrance. This outdoor mural featuring cacti, along with the installation in Max Caplin Unit, is the first major art commission at Mile End, and has contributed to the transformation of the hospital’s environment and the overall patient experience at the site.
About the Artist
Milly Peck (b. 1990, London) holds a BFA in Fine art from Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford (2012) and an MA in Sculpture from The Royal College of Art (2016). Awards include: Jerwood Visual Arts Artist Bursary (2018); David Troostwyk/Matt's Gallery Studio Award (2016); Gilbert Bayes Charitable Trust Grant (2016); Villiers David Travel Award (2015); Peel Award (2011).
Interested in theatre and the stage, and exploring the slip between two and three-dimensions, Peck's work often incorporates the aesthetic qualities of set design to create prop-like constructions that respond to existing urban and architectural features with a particular focus on the everyday, domestic or mundane.
Peck has been exhibited across London at Matt’s Gallery; Jerwood Space;Tintype Gallery; VITRINE; Thame-side Studios Gallery; and Assembly Point. Elsewhere in the UK, she has shown at East Bristol Contemporary; g36, Glasgow; Bluecoat, Liverpool; BALTIC, Newcastle; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; The Royal Standard, Liverpool; Bloc Projects, Sheffield, Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer; Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge.
She has also exhibited internationally at the Greenroom, Krakow,VITRINE, Basel and Annarumma Gallery, Naples.
Residencies include: The Bridget Riley Fellowship at the British School at Rome, IT (2021); AA2A Artist in Residence, Wimbledon College of Art, London, UK (2013-2014); Artist in Residence, Surbiton High School, London, UK (2013
This project was generously funded by Barts Charity
