Ashford and St. Peters Hospital NHS trust which was the first hospital to order The Covid Star is also the first to commission HELD . Other hospitals can also commission a limited edition of HELD for their staff.
Click on the image below to see 2 short films about HELD and Rae Wilkinson's fabulous staff garden.
contact email - hg@harrygray.co.uk
To make a sculpture to convey the experience of the staff during the Pandemic was very challenging. My father was in a hospice during the first weeks of the lockdown and it was difficult to be allowed access to be with him. So as well as providing amazing care the medical staff had to provide that reassuring extra touch that family members normally give and so a sculpture about hands seemed the right response.
I knew that medical staff would cast a critical eye over my work especially when it came to the anatomy of the hands and so I made a detailed study and persuaded my surgeon friend George Cormac to come the studio to see my modelling of the anatomy and pass comment. I also needed to model the stretchy fabric of the glove and this was just as difficult!
Bronze naturally goes green over time due to its high copper content but to speed this process up we 'patinate' the naked bronze with chemicals and heat. I decided to make a contrast between the two hands by emphasising the green colour of the gloved hand.
