Using the traditional quilting pattern called 'Corona', artist Aida Silvestri worked collaboratively with staff to create bespoke silhouette portraits, inviting staff to share poetry, thoughts and emotions related to their experience during the pandemic. The project focused on staff from an ethnic minority background, responding to the disproportionate clinical outcomes Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities have experienced; 21% of all NHS staff identify as Black, Asian and minority ethnic, and yet 63% of healthcare workers who died are from this background. The resulting artworks, reconfigured across the three exhibition sites, create a colourful collective portrait of staff resilience, hope and frustration during an unprecedented time to work for the NHS.

"Held in Hope" commission by Imperial Health Charity 2021-2022


About Coronaquilt
The initial inspiration for Coronaquilt Silhouette came about through a collaboration between Art Refuge and the artist at the start of the lockdown in March 2020. Art Refuge invited Aida to respond to Coronaquilt, the charity's new virtual project inspired by the traditional aesthetics of community quilt-making with an overarching theme of daily rituals that were helping people cope with Covid19. Early Coronaquilt Silhouette images were incorporated into the online quilt. coronaquilt.org
2020 (ongoing)