Laura
07-29-2008, 01:07 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/07/26/2008-07-26_sculptor_depicts_kings_county_hospital_p.html
Sculptor depicts Kings County Hospital patient's death in installation
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, July 25th 2008, 7:50 PM
On the eve of the opening of her art project depicting the horrifying death by neglect of a mental patient at Kings County Hospital, sculptor Dawn Petrlik found herself in the waiting room of the emergency room of another Brooklyn hospital last week.
While waiting for an X-ray of her injured foot, Petrlik recalled her initial shock of watching the surveillance video that showed Esmin Green dying on the floor in the psychiatric emergency room. This inspired her to create a work of art in which viewers question their own feelings of ambivalence and disconnect.
The video, showing security guards caught in the act of ignoring Green sprawled on the floor, became the smoking gun that led to sweeping changes at the psychiatric unit known as Building G.
"I was shocked, not only by what happened, but we are all watching her die," Petrlik said. "I'm very glad that there's been attention brought to her case, but the video element of it bothered me."
Petrlik, who has experience designing sets for Broadway and TV shows, set out to recreate the death scene - eight waiting room chairs, a ghostly 200-pound clay model of Green and a video camera feeding a live image on a TV screen of visitors viewing the disturbing scene.
Her recreation is on display at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook.
"The viewer becomes the viewed and it's creepy - and if it gives someone the creeps, my message has gotten through," she said.
Petrlik, of Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, said she has struggled to understand the mind-set of the guards who did nothing to help Green.
"Hopefully we can understand that this was a death that was really preventable had someone gotten involved and not treated it as a spectator sport," she said.
The installation, located at the coalition's warehouse headquarters, 499 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, will run for six weeks. For information, call (718) 596-2506.
Sculptor depicts Kings County Hospital patient's death in installation
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, July 25th 2008, 7:50 PM
On the eve of the opening of her art project depicting the horrifying death by neglect of a mental patient at Kings County Hospital, sculptor Dawn Petrlik found herself in the waiting room of the emergency room of another Brooklyn hospital last week.
While waiting for an X-ray of her injured foot, Petrlik recalled her initial shock of watching the surveillance video that showed Esmin Green dying on the floor in the psychiatric emergency room. This inspired her to create a work of art in which viewers question their own feelings of ambivalence and disconnect.
The video, showing security guards caught in the act of ignoring Green sprawled on the floor, became the smoking gun that led to sweeping changes at the psychiatric unit known as Building G.
"I was shocked, not only by what happened, but we are all watching her die," Petrlik said. "I'm very glad that there's been attention brought to her case, but the video element of it bothered me."
Petrlik, who has experience designing sets for Broadway and TV shows, set out to recreate the death scene - eight waiting room chairs, a ghostly 200-pound clay model of Green and a video camera feeding a live image on a TV screen of visitors viewing the disturbing scene.
Her recreation is on display at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook.
"The viewer becomes the viewed and it's creepy - and if it gives someone the creeps, my message has gotten through," she said.
Petrlik, of Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, said she has struggled to understand the mind-set of the guards who did nothing to help Green.
"Hopefully we can understand that this was a death that was really preventable had someone gotten involved and not treated it as a spectator sport," she said.
The installation, located at the coalition's warehouse headquarters, 499 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, will run for six weeks. For information, call (718) 596-2506.