Human beings are living, breathing theatre houses. Drama of every conceivable shade dwells endlessly within them. We arrive in this world from the dark womb, equipped with just two expressions — a blank stare that seems to question the wisdom behind being introduced to the universe and a shrill shriek that announces either hunger or the urgent need for sleep. As we progress, evolution takes over and teaches us the fine art of emoting. Anger, joy, love, and sorrow slowly journey their way into our being and establish permanent residence within, Aadhaar card and all.
Each of us is endowed with an excess of one emotion or another. There are those whose lives are entirely dictated by their temper. Some others are permanently drawn to sadness. There will always be something in their otherwise ordinary day that deserves a sigh or a lament, for how difficult can it be to discover melancholy around you if one is determined enough? Then there are those who treat life as a cruise, sailing through it, celebrating and posting photographs of sunsets accompanied by captions that have travelled through so many social media accounts that their original author has long given up ownership. And yes, there are those rare specimens in the human species who appear to harbour no emotion whatsoever — stone-faced individuals who move through life with all the enthusiasm of a government office employee.
Certain spaces become natural stages for emotionally charged spectacles, and the hospital is undoubtedly one of them. There is no shortage of human feeling within its walls. From the joy of witnessing a new life to the sorrow of an eternal goodbye, every corridor carries a story. If hospitals could speak, they would probably produce a Booker Prize-winning novel every year! Taking a cue from this idea, 70 artists took over an old hospital in Los Angeles and transformed it into a “Hospital of Emotions” last month. The hospital, which remained functional until recently, must have witnessed countless human dramas over the years. Now, that once sterile environment has been transformed into a multi-sensory experience for visitors. Every patient room, operation theatre, nurse station, and corridor became a canvas. Artists working across disciplines such as installation, visual art, and architecture, each adopted a room and dedicated it to a different human emotion. They turned 80 rooms spread across four floors into immersive art installations. Visitors move through the building room by room, not as patients seeking treatment but as observers exploring the landscape of human feeling. Drawing from their own experiences, the artists transformed the hospital’s clinical spaces into emotional worlds.
Contemporary art often struggles to step beyond the walls of galleries and museums, spaces that many people still view as intimidating. Most people may never voluntarily wander into an art gallery, but a hospital is familiar territory. By presenting an exhibition about emotions in a building that people instinctively understand, art becomes less distant and more personal. The exhibition may be temporary, but until its doors close, every emotion imaginable will continue to reign supreme in this Kingdom of Emotions.