Big Pharma
Crafted just before the onset of a global pandemic, when science and drug manufacturers became even more central to international power structure, this soft-spoken piece managed to communicate a terrifying message in a deceptively elegant form.
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A precursor to The Pill Mill, this project was crafted to showcase the dangerous impact of pharmaceuticals on human life.
What's the problem?
Opioids are big business
Ideation & Fabrication
I worked through a variety of ideas, some more literal than others, trying to get to the idea of how Big Pharma is complicit in opioid addiction
My next step was to create various physical manifestations of the strongest concepts in order to assess the ultimate viability of my final idea. I considered scale, materials, simplicity, and my ability to craft a compelling and relevant piece as I refined the concept.
I committed to a concentrated pace and spent hours in the studio as lockdowns loomed in the distance. Constructing the final piece required patient glass working skills in order to avoid shattering or cracking the hourglass when drilling a hole through the top to insert the pills and powder.
Final Piece
After much exploration, I created an hourglass sculpture combining small plaster pill castings with material dust. The hourglass symbolizes how so many lives exist on limited time.
The transition from pills at the top to powder at the bottom represents how easy and fluid it is for people to transition from simple, accessible, low-cost prescription drugs, to dangerous chemicals and ultimately, to lethal street drugs.