Pick Up Prescription, Call Mom, 2014

Installation of photographs, post-it notes, journal pages, planner pages, prescription papers, appointment cards, postcards, prescription bottles, magazine pages, and artist journal.

This installation aims to overwhelm the viewer by covering the walls from floor to ceiling with photographs of pills, self portraits, both candid and posed, pages from journals, post-it notes, to-do lists, prescription papers, pharmacy bags, and various magazine pages and postcards from the artist’s personal space. On the floor, dividing the viewer from the wall of photos are a scattering of prescription pill bottles and the artist’s journal.

The installation publicizes a private ritual and space, exposing vulnerabilities of the artist. It explores concepts of self identity and the identity of mental illness. A closer reading of the journal pages pinned to the wall and the writings in the actual journal reveal a subtext of agency and abuse. These intense moments are mediated by moments of intervention, the photos of the room, the posed self-portraits. The real subject of the piece is called into question as the images begin a reclamation of self and identity. The images are documenting, marking moments in time, creating meaning, while simultaneously losing meaning in the sea of information.