A Place to Heal

by Mark Holman

A multi-disciplinary creative, Mark Holman’s practice initially focused on figurative subjects – both sculpted and drawn. Recently, his process has drawn on parallel creative ventures as an actor, musician and horticulturalist, evolving beyond the purely figurative to focus on human connections with nature in a more social engaged way. The goal of Mark’s current projects is to engage community and encourage discourse, supporting sustainability and promoting healthier relationships with the environment. He is a featured artist in our Cornwall Edition.

When I was approached by a local Hospital Trust to help create a garden that enabled Intensive Care Patients to recover within nature, I jumped at the opportunity to make a difference in a tangible way. The garden I designed – underneath the critical care unit at Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust in Truro – is one of the first therapeutic gardens in the UK that enables very ill patients to spend time outside with the help of life-support technology.

The garden contains a combination of sensory plants, hospital bed areas, and seating spots for families, carers, and medical professionals: a space where the patients can be surrounded by a therapeutic combination of friends, family and nature. Kym Vigus, RCHT Critical Care Staff Nurse, calls it “a huge asset to our unit” that generates “incredibly positive experiences” for patients: “For clinical teams to be able to bring patients down to the courtyard to feel the fresh air and see the sky, to smell the plants and hear birdsong, is very special.”

‘A Place to Heal’ evolved from my work designing and installing the therapeutic Healing Garden, a project which planted the seeds of an idea for a sculptural installation in which a reclaimed hospital bed would be planted with local botanical species so that it looked like it was coming out of the ground. This installation was first exhibited to the public at the Royal Cornwall Garden Society Show. It continued in five different locations around West Cornwall, with the bed eventually moving to Victoria Square, in front of Truro Cathedral.

We were lucky to get the artist Kurt Jackson involved, both with the garden itself, and a book of art and writing that grew out of the bed tour. An exploration of relationships with plants, why we need nature and why we need to work to preserve it, the book sets out to explore how plants can heal us and how we can heal the environment.

As we ferried the bed from one location to another, we chatted to people about the Healing Garden project, the benefits of nature, and how regular engagement with nature can have positive effects on both mental and physical health.

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