Uri Aran


Medical services and structures are integral to the history of Randall's Island, which was the site of various local hospitals in the 19th Century. My project for Frieze doesn't necessarily speak to these ideas directly. Those facts were really just a starting point from which to explore aspects of public and private experience and to manipulate certain tropes that interest me. I was immediately attracted to the Island's old ticket shack. It looks like a little theater and almost invites some kind of a spectacle. The structure feels childish—it's not infantile, but it does have something to do with a kind of conditioning, education, language, and even a moral authority. I am always working with these concepts, and they are connected with the idea of a hospital, which made me think about the role of a doctor. I turned the derelict structure into a fictional examination room in which actors and friends played the roles of doctors and patients to music composed and performed by Dan Aran, Nick Hempton and Itai Kriss.