The Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) presents Waking Up in Waterford, an exhibition of papercuts by artist Paul Bokslag.
The Waking Up in Waterford exhibition explores the artist’s unexpected experience of waking up in Waterford Regional Hospital after surgery following a traumatic accident in 1996. Through a series of figurative papercuts Paul has revisited his stay as a patient in the hospital. The visual narrative that runs through the exhibition follows his journey towards recovery.
Paul explains that: “I had never been to Waterford before and all that I could see of it when I woke up the next morning was the line of trees outside the hospital window. I was disorientated and in the week that followed, while trying to make sense of what had happened to me, the city [of Waterford] grew in my imagination.”
Paul Bokslag was born and raised in the Netherlands and studied Art Therapy at the University of Applied Sciences, Leiden. He moved to Callan, Co. Kilkenny in 1999, where he lives and works. He works in, and was a founding member of KCAT (Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent) Art and Study Centre, an open access Arts and Life-Long Learning initiative in Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
Paul has had solo exhibitions in a number of venues, including Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford; Signal Arts Centre, Bray and Abhainn Rí Festival, Callan. Group shows that his work was selected for include RHA, Dublin; Occupy Space, Limerick; Basement Project Space, Cork; Éigse Open Submission, Carlow and Junction Festival, Clonmel.
In the words of the Director of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust, Mary Grehan: “Like many people, Paul Bokslag’s introduction to Waterford was as a patient of Waterford Regional Hospital and we are delighted that he has chosen to transform the memories of that experience into this beautiful series of papercuts. This exhibition shows how the roles of ‘patient’ and ‘artist’ are not static but interchangeable – artists can become patients and patients can become artists.”
The exhibition will run until 6th June.
The Waterford Healing Arts Trust acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council in making this exhibition possible.
For further information please contact the Waterford Healing Arts Trust on 051-842664 or e-mail WHAT@hse.ie