Serving Suggestions

Commissioned by Linden New Art and Alfred Health for temporary exhibition at the Alfred Innovation & Education Hub in Naarm/Melbourne (2023-24).

Serving Suggestions is a video and sound installation encountered as a pitstop, a refreshment zone. Staff in scrubs and lab coats—trailing lanyards, ID badges, smartwatches and stethoscopes behind them—perform a series of words that offer prompts and possibilities, guiding the viewer towards a range of apparitions.

These words conjure worlds. With contributions from over 40 hospital and research staff, each chosen word becomes a portal, expressing open-ended thoughts and ideas—daily encounters that can be carried and contemplated as people travel back to wards, multiple and diverse departments, research labs, and operating theatres.

Combined with a soundscape fizzing with airy, atmospheric environments, Serving Suggestions creates a sensory interlude in the regular flow of our day, a decompression zone that can stimulate each of us in different ways


Acknowledgements
The artists are grateful for the participation of staff from the Alfred Health and A+ Research Alliance precinct: Adam, Alex, Alexandra, Alice, Ammy, Angelo, Anna, Annie, Belinda, Bella, Beth, Carlos, Connie, Daniel, Elle, Gavin, Gayatri, Hiranmayi, James, Jaspreet, Joe, Kaye, Kim, Lisa, Liz, Lorena, Lou, Lucia, Mel N, Mel P, Nim, Paul, Sally H, Sally P, Sam, Steven, Thy, Tilly, Tracey, Violeta, Vivienne, Winston and Yvette.

Our thanks to Vincent Alessi and the team at Linden New Art, the School of Art at RMIT University, and Sally Martin, Paul Elliot and the team at Alfred Health. 

Concept, camerawork, sound design, editing and installation design by Sonia Leber & David Chesworth

Photo credits
Sonia Leber & David Chesworth