| AdminHistory | Tony Fletcher has been at LSHTM since 1992. He has contributed to several studies of PFAS (perfluorinated alkyl substance) research, on PFAS-exposed communities in Ronneby, Sweden and in Veneto, Italy.
He teaches on the Public Health MSc, in particular for the Environmental Epidemiology Module, and Environmental Health Policy in the Environmental Health stream.
His principal research interests are environmental epidemiology (predominately on disease risks in relation to drinking water contaminants; cancer in relation to occupation, arsenic and drinking water; and respiratory disease in relation to air pollution) and environmental health risk assessment (embracing quantitative risk assessment, risk perception, environmental health policy making in general and standard setting for chemicals in particular).
The LSHTM Contemporary Arts Programme started in 2000 and was organised by Tony Fletcher with the School’s Board of Management approval. The initial idea was to commission or purchase some sculptures and pictures, but the Keppel Street building has relatively few suitable spaces for placing or hanging art. So instead the emphasis shifted towards commissioning works that fitted, both in terms of the themes of the school and the architecture of the building. Most of the commissions involved a small advisory committee of artists/curators to develop a shortlist and advise on selecting from the submitted proposals. The site-specific commissioned art works both reflect and contrast with the School’s academic programme.
In parallel the School organised a series of exhibitions with the help of Pam Skelton, Central Saint Martins (CSM). The first two exhibitions in the LSHTM buildings, of CSM student works, took place while the first round of inviting commission proposals was underway. The art students’ brief was to prepare new works, and School staff and students responded well to the diverse references to the School and its research in these shows. Later, more ambitious thematic exhibitions including major established artists, were mounted on "Hygiene" and "Smog".
The Programme also benefited from grant support from the Wellcome Trust and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in their science-art programmes, which substantially contributed to the funding, for the exhibitions in 2001 and 2002.
Exhibitions:
2000: Foreign Bodies. Work by students from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. Curated by Pam Skelton.
2001: Foreign Bodies, 2001. Work by students from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. Curated by Pam Skelton.
2002: Hygiene - the art of public health that featured Fernando Arias, Christine Borland, Susan Brind, Naomi Dines, Hadrian Piggott, Gary Perkins, Pam Skelton, Shaheen Merali, Kate Meynell, Alister Skinner, Paola Junkiera, Curated by Pam Skelton and Tony Fletcher.
2002: SMOG, an exhibition that featured, Beth Harland, Caroline List, Richard Layzell, Mario Rossi, Mare Tralla, Chris Meigh-Andrews, Jacqueline Morreau, Curated by Pam Skelton and Tony Fletcher with new works inspired by the anniversary of the 1952 London smog.
2003: Maria Poncelas, photographs commissioned to coincide with World No Tobacco Day 2003 and 2004, a worldwide event held each year to draw attention to the adverse health effects of the tobacco epidemic.
2005: The Healers, exhibition of African Artists and 2-day conference/festival. Feb-April 2005. Organised by Susannah Mayhew.
Works purchased from the above exhibitions are on permanent display in the School.
Artist Commissions:
2001: The first two commissions, by Susan Brind and Gary Perkins, were opened in June 2001.
Susan Brind's installation focuses on the School's research into malaria. Referencing research from the Classical Period to the 20th Century, 'bad air [mal'aria]' distributes a text around the walls of the ground floor of one of the School's main buildings in Keppel Street. Hand rendered in gold leaf, ideas created by a delirious mind and fevered body, factual information and beliefs of the period, merge as a cycle of thoughts. The proximity of rational, objective texts to the more emotive ones generates a poetic space for the viewer or reader within the School's architecture.
Gary Perkins' video installation was in place 2001-2006. It was removed following renovation of the School reception area. The work echoed the levels of scrutiny and study that characterises the School. A series of oblique and oddly beautiful images were relayed through the network of sixteen miniature surveillance cameras, researching the very fabric of the building, and shown on a security style monitor in the foyer.
2002: Martina Kramer’s commission in the main stairwell opened in May 2002. Her large scale work, ‘Ramifications’, comprises two complementary series of paintings in the stairwell in the main part of the Keppel Street building at LSHTM. The installation draw upon fractal geometry and are painted on shiny stainless steel to create an irregular whole built up from regular and symmetric basic forms. The movement of light makes the surface of the work responsive, reflecting both literally and metaphorically the vertical passage of the people using the stairs.
2002: Collection: Persistent Items, by Julian Walker was commissioned for the 2002 exhibition Hygiene and installed on the stairwell, an enthusiastic response to this work by regular users of the stairs led to a decision to purchase and retain it along with the other major commissions.
2003: Vivien Blackett. 21 May to 31 July an exhibition of paintings with essay by Sotiris Kyriacou. Curated by Pam Skelton.
2004: Two major sculptural commissions in the access routes to the new North Courtyard Building, by Richard Layzell and Grenville Davey. |