The annual Boerhaave Prize was presented by the board of directors on May 12, 2021 (Day of Care) to all employees of the UMC Utrecht for the special way in which they dedicate themselves to the care of people with and without Covid-19. The board of the Stichting J.M. Fentener van Vlissingen Fonds, made this special edition of the Boerhaave Prize possible.
Artist Linda Nieuwstad created a work of art that expresses gratitude, appreciation and supporting each other. She incorporated materials used in the hospital, and in the care surrounding Covid-19. There are leaves made from company clothing and cleaning wipes, mouth caps, breathing tubes and PCR test tubes.
Nieuwstad (b. 1974) creates monumental floral arrangements. She was inspired when she saw the lavish floral still life from the Golden Age at a museum. The impressive compositions of painters such as Jan van Huysum and Rachel Ruysch, with references to vanitas and transience, fascinated her. She imagined she could step into these paintings, and since then she has been creating idyllic worlds you would want to enter.
She immersed herself in botany and the formal language of plants and uses this in her work to express the forms and meanings plants can have.
In elaborating these sometimes fragile-looking idylls, she opts for contrast. She blows up the flowers to enormous sizes and uses tough materials such as truck tarps, foam rubber, metal and other building materials. With these coarse materials, she manages to create subtle forms and compositions that invite you to marvel and, almost literally, enter a new world.
Photography: Thomas Dobber
Learn more about how this artwork was created in the video: https://youtu.be/DoLKl2UtxTk