COAST PORTFOLIO: ZOE CHILDERLEY

Photographer Zoe Childerley explains her approach to creating the Coast Portfolio for the new hospital waiting rooms in this 5 minute film by Vasil Dzhagalov.

Zoe Childerley has taken a dive into the coastal landscape – floating, paddling, sailing and walking with local communities – to create seascape imagery anchored in concepts of ‘beneath the waves’, ‘on the surface’ and ‘at the edge’.

Having recently moved to the Sussex Coast, Zoe was interested in how living by the sea affects one’s sense of wellbeing. Experiencing a feeling of being on the edge with a vast panorama on her doorstep, she welcomed the commission as an opportunity to explore the coastline and get to know her new coastal community.

The body of work Zoe has produced is as varied and complex as the coast itself. It ranges from still lives showing botanical specimens found at the shoreline, to larger compositions incorporating image and explanation, diagrams and equations, alluding to our attempts to navigate and comprehend the power and topography of the Sussex coastline.

‘The Common Whelk’ by Zoe Childerley, part of the Coast Portfolio for the Connect Waiting Room Project.

“I hope that the work can offer a distraction, that can be intriguing yet meditative, a window to the outside world and connection to place. The hospital itself is on the coast in Brighton, looking out towards the sea. The sea gives us an opportunity to meditate upon our place within the world, against the immense spaces and epic timescales it evokes.”

Zoe’s work will be in the following departments:

• Head & Neck Outpatients
• Nuclear Medicine
• Clinical Infection Service
• Medical Ward, Care of the Elderly
• Neurosurgical Inpatient Ward

‘At the Edge: Allium on Seascape’ Located in Head & Neck Outpatients	‘At the Edge: Salsify on Seascape’ Located in Head & Neck Outpatients	‘Negative Light’ Located in Head & Neck Outpatients

‘Meeting of the Streams’ Located in Head & Neck Outpatients	‘Beneath the Waves’ Located in Head & Neck Outpatients	‘Shipwreck Map’ Located in Head & Neck Outpatients

‘As Above So Below’ Located in Nuclear Medicine	‘One Year’ Located in Nuclear Medicine	‘Utopia’ Located in Nuclear Medicine	‘The Force of Waves’ Located in Nuclear Medicine

‘The Shape of Water I’ Located in Clinical Infection Service	‘The Shape of Water II’ Located in Clinical Infection Service	‘The Shape of Water III’ Located in Clinical Infection Service	‘The Shape of Water IV’ Located in Clinical Infection Service

‘How Far to the Horizon’ Located in Medical Ward, Care of the Elderly	‘Night Ships Passing’ Located in Medical Ward, Care of the Elderly	‘The Common Whelk’ Located in Neurosurgical Inpatient Ward	‘The Look Out’ Located in Neurosurgical Inpatient Ward