Camila Salcedo  

Hospital Blues, is a 10-minute durational performance piece and subsequent video documentation by which the artist dresses and undresses themselves with a wearable artwork made up of ten blue hospital gowns sewn together. This work represents the passage of time and rituals involved with a near-death experience that led to a 10-day cardiac ICU visit. The title of the work is in response to a WhatsApp message the artist received from their uncle when they could not move from bed, that said “Cami, I gift you the blue of the sky” (in Spanish). On each of the gowns, is a printed cyanotyped X Ray from their hospital visit, created with sun rays; another connection to the blue sky they were “gifted”. The performance served as a means of catharsis, for the artist in reclaiming the simple fact of being alive through the mundane act of taking off and putting on a gown, and helping them cope with the trauma associated with the failing health system.

Part of Dying.Series’ Multiple Endings exhibition during DesignTO 2025.