Herbarium
Location: Neonatal Care Unit, Södersjukhuset Hospital, Stockholm, 2020
The images in the light boxes are cyanotypes of plants that Lina Selander has gathered in the surroundings of Södersjukhuset Hospital, such as nettles from Tantolunden Park, water lilies by the water, and other plants from the nearby allotments. In order to document the plants, Selander has used an early photographic method: the cyanotype – invented in 1842 by the English researcher and astronomer Sir John Herschel.
Selander has chosen different kinds of plants, both planted and wild, that all grow in the area around Södersjukhuset. It becomes the place’s own botanical collection, a non-hierarchical selection of plants, all equally lovely and valuable.
The plants create a specific relation to the place, they become tangible reminders of the hospital’s outside. There is a care in the gathering of plants and a care in the process that transfers them to images, in the manual, analogue photographic method. It can also be a reminder of our ecosystems, which can be large and small, a garden and our entire planet. All ecosystems need energy to function, and the big energy source is the sun – the light that has developed the images.
The tint of the light boxes changes slowly over the course of the day. This becomes one of time’s many expressions. As the light changes during the day, the blue tones shift from cold blue to cyan, purple blue, and green blue. The light will be perceived as colder during the day and warmer at night.
