PILL PORTRAITS
Pill Portraits: Amy Jean, 2003, C- Print photograph, 20" x 24”
Pill Portraits: Kadin, 2003, C- Print photograph, 24 x 20”
PILL PORTRAITS
Pill Portraits is a series of photographs of people’s daily pill regiments. The portraits are of the artist’s friends, family, co-workers and acquaintance’s prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as supplements, which they took on a daily basis at that moment in time.
Invisible systems within American culture guide us through our daily lives, controlling us, or at the very least, seducing us into cooperation. Through what moves in and out of our minds and bodies on a daily basis we, as individuals, are in a constant flux between being part of the system and being apart from the system. Time is particularly compelling as our capitalist society raises the ante on speed and convenience with each year that passes. The pressure of productivity pace and copious worker output, lays the foundation for ruptures in a person’s general health. Sometimes in small ways: the occasional headache or heartburn, or sometimes larger: thyroid dysfunction, autoimmune disease, cancer. We often use pills to quickly gain control of our bodies, as to enable the continued productivity that our job, or household, requires of us. This behavior is encouraged by pharmaceutical companies selling the idea of gained time & an increase in quality of life; their marketing campaigns targeted at both patients and their doctors (who are often financially incentivized for prescribing, and seldom aware of the moderate, yet intolerable, side effects patients often experience). One need not be deep in the throws of aging, or seriously ill, to have their own arsenal of over-the-counter medication, wellness supplements and prescription drugs in their medicine cabinet. Pill culture is compelling because a person is able to take control of their own body during a moment when they may feel defeated by the system, their life a bit out of control (“Take Advil and take control” – Advil slogan). The control wielded by a capitalist system creates a climate of endless unreal expectations and often inadequate compensation, resulting in a time deficit that doesn’t allow for proper rest and relaxation to recharge, let alone learning new things and critical thinking (no time to rise up). Rather it encourages quick fixes: junk food, online shopping, anti-inflammatories, glasses of wine and binging streaming TV shows. Take a pill, and get on with it.
There are multiple images in this series.