BLOOM

I was perusing through pictures when I stumbled along this project that I thought was completely awe inspiring and had to share. Artist Anna Schuleit created a haunting series entitled BLOOM (2003) where she planted flowers at the abandoned Massachusetts Health Center. I'll copy and paste what is written on her website about the project:

"Created to address the persistent absence of flowers in psychiatric hospital settings, BLOOM consisted of 28,000 potted, blooming flowers, selected and sorted by color, and placed throughout four floors of the historic building. The basement hallways were carpeted in live sod, for viewers to walk on. The old public announcement system was used to lay recorded sounds of the building from the days leading up to its closing." (source)

Click on the pictures for their source

"A startling explosion of color, smells and sounds within drab institutional walls Schuleit left much of what she found untouched. In some rooms, furniture is tipped over and tape dispensers, paper and other items are still scattered across the desks. Her vision was not limited to flora. Using the center's 1950's-era public address system, she piped in sounds recorded in the final weeks before it closed: footsteps echoing in the hallways, voices of patients and staff members, doors slamming shut." -Associated Press (source)

Back home we have an abandoned mental hospital, and I would have loved to walk through that one and then this one and noted how different a world the artist created. It's amazing what color and life can bring to something so depressing and wasted. That applies to all aspects of life I believe. Thank you Ms. Schuleit for such beautiful work.

Till next time,

Jess