Revisiting The Ward

In 1993, the photographer Gideon Mendel went to the Broderip and Charles Bell wards at the Middlesex Hospital. These were the first wards in London dedicated to HIV/AIDS. So imagine the controversy of these photographs during that time. Now, the Fitzrovia Chapel, where this exhibition takes place, is the only remaining building of that hospital.

With a video installation and very minimal set up and display (the empty hospital bed is very moving), the exhibition is a visceral depiction of the effects of HIV/AIDS of that time along how photography serves as a tool for memory. You can get to know some of the patients and their closest ones, and the old medical staff. That’s why this exhibition is based in emotions (it is visually stunning as it is anyway). Those emotions that everyone felt at that time. Very scary feelings but what remains is the compassion, love, support, care, respect and empathy that The Ward had.