The Art of Healing By DAPHNE HAGSHAW A hospital reception is the last place where one would normally expect to find work of high artistic merit, but since the beginning of July, the reception at The Mombasa Hospital is a glowing jewel of colour and form. The hand behind the transformation of this utilitarian area into an area of beauty belongs to Pauline Groom, a typographer and graphic designer who trained at the Epsom and EweIl School of Art. One day last year Pauline was asked by the Mombasa Hospital League of Friends to paint a dhow mural to brighten up Reception.  A dhow?  Pauline had other ideas.  It seemed to her that the defining word in the hospital's name was "Hospital" not "Mombasa'' and the mural should therefore depict healing. This thought took Pauline into areas of research where few of us venture.  She took as her starting point classical Ethiopian art.  Its uncluttered lines and colouring appealed to the graphic designer in her, and its large-eyed stylised figures seemed a particularly suitable way to depict the prayer, the pleading with which the sick approach the healer.

The second observation was that in times of trouble mankind invariably turns to the Creator for solace and support. The world's major religions with their icons and artistic traditions were a rich source of inspiration, as was the history of medicine in many diverse cultures.  Weaving all these multi-coloured strands together the historical, the spiritual, the esoteric, the cultural has resulted in a stunning series of designs that tell the story of healing from many perspectives. Most of the panels are depicted as, illustrations in an Ethiopian prayer book; others are stylised imagery of the mystical. They all contain talismanic references. For instance, the first "page" shows a woman sunk in tile misery of sickness that has yet to be diagnosed.  Her family is grouped in attitudes of sorrow. "I feel sick and sore within me " reads the script.  The Coast is predominantly Muslim and it is therefore no surprise that in each of the murals, there is one of the "Ninety Nine Beautiful Names of Allah".  In this first panel, written in Arabic script we Find 'Ya-Salaam" - He who repeats this name 160 times to a sick person will help him to regain health arid to be safe from calamities.  A Swahili exhortation reads Ee Bwana, unisikie siku ya shida yangu (Oh Lord hear me in my day of trouble) while a pattern of interlocking tiles represents the unity of the family and pillars depict the family as the mainstay of society.

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The opposing "page" of this first panel shows a demon, eyes rimmed in red as in conventional Ethiopian art.  In the Ethiopian tradition demons are responsible for illness and this "page" shows a talisman on a protective scroll. "The Vision of His Face and the hearing of His names undoes all evil" states a quotation from an Ethiopian manuscript to offset any evil evoked by the depiction of a demon. As with the first design, so with all of them, each evokes the steps the sick woman must take towards health, not only of body but also of mind and spirit, for the three add up to the whole individual and each of the three must balance with the other two.  This aspect is given subtle significance in each design although sometimes the talismanic concepts differ from culture to culture,  the serpent for instance, is a powerful symbol of the psyche in all cultures, but sometimes it is wise.  For instance, in the first panel the serpents (Gog & /Magog) are shown as the enemies of God while in the second panel serpents are shown entwined into the staff of Hypocrites the well-known symbol for medicine. In the second panel the family .takes the sick woman to the hospital where the physician greets her with outstretched hands, with nurses in attendance.  As the sick woman steps through the portal, she has made not only a decision to be healed, but also a step towards spiritual enlightenment that will lead to true health. The third panel has the woman lying in bed, her sickness diagnosed, made ready for the fray against disease, and the forth design shows the moment of actual crisis in the progression of illness.  A most beautiful design this, which is nearly entirely calligraphic.  The only depiction of humanity is a face and upheld hands, which in Ethiopian art illustrate supplication.  The "body" is outlined with vertical scripts, which stretch from the "feet" around the upheld hands and the head.  The delicate inscriptions are from every major religion and convey people's experience of Light from diverse cultures. The fifth panel needs little explanation for it shows in a traditional way the Forces of Good overcoming Evil.  A saint of the Ethiopian Church, flanked by Luke and the patient, is shown on horseback, both lancing and trampling a serpent under horse's hoofs.  Echoes of St. George and the dragon as well as other hero and monster myths are found here.  This panel is also rich in traditional iconography. The sixth design shoes in calligraphic outline, a Buddha meditating while seated upon a lotus, the whole in a roundel symbolising wholeness.  This panel represents the patient's recuperation.  Here also are Buddhist mantras to assist healing. It is possible to view The Mombasa Hospital tableaux on a purely superficial level.  Most people will understand that they narrate the story of a sick woman who comes to the hospital for healing and goes away cured.

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