Welcome to Planet Zog!
‘We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.’
Marshall McLuhan
At a North East London health centre some devilishly good illustration is hanging on the walls. A great charity called The Nightingale Project unveiled Quentin Blakes latest work. The charities objective is to brighten the dreary and depressing world of hospitals, with Quentins help and some bloody great big printing machines they have acheived just that.
Huge blow-ups of scenes from Planet Zog adorn the walls and Monsieur Blake was there to present his wonderful works.
The alien world of ‘Planet Zog’ is intended to warm the reflection of the world of the institution to the child. The vivid colours combined with the subtle details and minimal pen-strokes evoked smiles from everyone who cast their eyes on Zog.
Nick Rhodes the director of the Nightingale Project kindly took me on a private tour of the illustrations. There are no plans to publish them so unless you are a patient or staff at the centre its unlikely that you will get an opportunity to see the rest - so thats why I took all of these photos!
All the pictures are all hung at adult eye-level. I am sure the staff will absorb the good vibes. They just need a few steps for kids to climb up in to Planet Zog too.
Its a brilliant idea, more art in hospitals but I was told that convincing health-care trusts to put a line in their budget for art when its continually being stripped back is an uphill battle. Arts Council England should be throwing money at this!
There’s a great article about some other work Quentin did for the Nightingale Project at the BBC’s website here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6216758.stm