Artist's 18-month stay inside Delhi eye hospital translates to exhibition on care, labour

An artist's 18-month stay at Dr Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital in Daryaganj here has culminated in an exhibition, offering a candid glimpse at the people, procedures and labour at one of the capital's oldest medical institutions. Titled 'Through the Artist's Eye', the exhibition by British artist Stuart Robertson opened at the Bikaner House on Monday and will continue till May 3. According to an official statement, the exhibition draws from Robertson's time inside the hospital and brings together photographs, sketches, bronze sculptures and cyanotypes of scenes from operating theatres, waiting halls, staff corridors and other spaces within the institution. Rather than focusing on medical procedures alone, the artworks are centred around the people behind the day-to-day functioning of the hospital -- surgeons, nurses, guards, trainees and support staff. Robertson said his extended stay allowed him to observe the institution as a ''living, breathing clockwork system''. ''I came to see the surgeons as the engine and heart of the place, the nurses as its lifeblood, and the guards and trainees as essential parts of the whole,'' he said in the statement. Meanwhile, the hospital management said the exhibition captured not only the act of restoring sight but also the larger ''idea of seeing''. ''What began as a gesture of giving, grew into an 18-month journey of quiet companionship with our work. Through Stuart's lens, the hospital is not just a building, it breathes, drawing energy from the life around it and giving back in equal measure. This exhibition is his gift to us. It captures not just the act of restoring sight, but the deeper idea of seeing -- with attention, humility, and empathy,'' Chief Executive Officer Dr Umang Mathur said. The project began after Robertson donated proceeds from the sale of two artworks to the hospital some years ago, eventually leading to an invitation to work from within the institution as artist in residence. Known for long-form immersive projects, Robertson studied at the Wimbledon School of Art and has spent several years in Delhi. Much of his work is rooted in close engagement with communities and spaces he documents, the statement read. A section of the exhibition also moves beyond the hospital, into the streets of Daryaganj and Old Delhi, rooting the institution to its surroundings -- from where many patients, workers and visitors come.

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