Proud

Rae Stevens

Rae Stevens’s process in making this series of letterpress prints is one of deep involvement. It includes her 30 years experience as a nurse in the NHS, recent work researching with the Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, and an Albion Press which has been in use since Victorian times (you can see it pictured with the pieces). Each print features words of poetry by NHS staff who were on the frontline of the pandemic at its peak, alongside their names. Their words are offset by the simplicity of the print and the boldness of the colour, marking a tribute to, as well as a record of, the momentous undertaking of the NHS in our time.

At first sight, the connection of this series to her two piece sculpture ‘Anamnesis’ is not immediately obvious; but the title translates as recollection, and is used as a term for a patient’s account of their medical history. In this large aluminum sculpture the detached elements orient themselves toward and away from each other, expressing order and disorder in memory and centering the resilience of countless people’s efforts.