Have Strength Find Peace

During the process of creating this work for the Tribunal Room in a mental health hospital in Ipswich, Carl Rowe ran a screen printing workshop where patients were invited to draw a fond memory of sitting under a tree and then come up with words they associated with this moment. The words Strength and Peace emerged repeatedly during his workshop, so Rowe superimposed these over photographs of trees that can be found growing majestically in Christchurch Park. The intention of bringing nature inside the confines of the room has been quietly reinforced by virtue of the fact that the black ink used in the screen- printing process was made from carbonated acorns, sweet chestnuts and horse chestnuts gathered from the trees they depict.