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Sofia Elizabeth Bicego
Since We Last Spoke
2022
Group installation exhibition at Herman Kiefer Medical Complex in Detroit, MI.
Room 110: Washing Room
Pine
Worn Bedsheet
Marble
Water
Room 122: Quiet Room
Pine
Worn Bedsheet
Plaster
Absence of Marble
Statement: Room 110 and Room 122
The Herman Kiefer Medical Complex is a now-abandoned hospital in Detroit with a rich, tragic history. Starting as a booming infectious disease hospital and growing into a teaching hospital, it then declined to an underfunded HIV testing site, and eventually was shut down by the state health department. I created a two-part installation to honor the history of care that exists in the complex, using two rooms facing one another, separated only by a hallway. While creating this work, I thought about the washing and caretaking of bodies, and how the weight of a person leaves a physical imprint on a bed after they're gone. Much like the weight of a person gone, the Herman Kiefer is imprinted on the city it once served.
Room 212: Artifacts
Porcelain gripped in hands
Pinched stoneware bowls, one filled with plaster, one filled with debris gathered from hospital floor
Sticks from room 212 windowsill
Leaves from room 212 windowsill
Chunks fallen from ceiling in room 110
Glass from shattered window in room 212
Worn bedsheet from home
Porcelain fingerprints on windowsill
Porcelain imprint of back of the hand
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