During the coronavirus pandemic, Helen Birnbaum made and installed 100 ceramic hands outside St Mary’s Church in Skelmersdale, a town near Liverpool. These hands commemorated those we were unable to touch during quarantine and those we lost forever. The hands were installed on the day the church was first opened after the first national lockdown restrictions were lifted in June 2020. This photograph shows the church Secretary and Cleaner as they arrived on that day, and Helen said:
It felt an important day to install the work. I also took photographs of the hands in a silent Skelmersdale to show a normally busy place devoid of people and activity.”
”100 Hands” now represent community, albeit a silent community, who are unable to be in its usual places.
We all recognise just how important our hands are to us and in a time of quarantine there is a sadness in our relationship with the hands that we cannot use to touch things, surfaces and those we love for fear of infection. These hands most importantly represent those we have lost to this terrible disease.
50 of the ceramic hands are now on display in the Charles Hastings Education Centre, and while the George Marshall Medical Museum is closed under national lockdown rules, the Centre is still visited by medical and healthcare staff of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
You can watch Helen installing the hands on the steps outside St Mary’s Church in the film below. The hands represent a community waiting for a church to open its doors.
Helen Birnbaum’s “CERAMIC Transmission” considers the transmission of disease, and through touch, the sculptures enabled greater understanding and interest in theories about disease and transmission. This was done through electronic sound components activated by touch.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fear of spreading of the disease through touch, the interaction with the sculptures can now take place by scanning QR codes and the playing of sounds via smart devices such as mobile phones.
To find out more about Helen’s ceramic sound pieces, click here to be taken to an external webpage.
To find out more about Helen’s 100 Hands, click here.