"Highland Hospital Acute Tower Replacement Project," 2016, Highland Hospital, Oakland, California
Highland Hospital’s long history of service to the community as reflected in archival images of its nurses taken during the 1920s and 30s, expressed in the context of the hospital’s new Acute Care wing.
Based on historical photographs, blueprints, and maps found in the Oakland History Room of the Alameda County Library, Hung Liu’s series of four/six mixed-media paintings will refer to the history of community service for which Highland Hospital is well known. The archival photo-images were gathered at the “Oakland Room” of the Alameda County Library.
Each mixed-media work is composed of a hand-painted portrait of several nurses, printed ornamental details from Highland Hospital’s initial architectural plans, traditional renderings of Chinese birds of Chen Hongshou, a renowned Chinese painter from the Ming Dynasty, and hand-colored cut-outs of local area flowers.