DRY LEAVES

INTERACTION | NEON: 120 X 80 CM | MEDICINE BLISTER PACKS | 2014

Medicine develops ceaselessly. Information on modern methods of treatment applied today may be outdated tomorrow. The pharmaceuticals we take by no means guarantee our health will improve. Doctors frequently send patients away without diagnosis. Not receiving a reply to this question, so fundamental when faced with illness, deprives one of the possibility of self-determination. Without knowing why one feels bad, without certainty about what is happening to one, one prefers not to admit the problem not only before others but also before oneself. It is easier to avoid the topic than to keep correcting and explaining the intricacies of the process of treatment. Accepting the situation in which we are unable to rely on ourselves, in which we lose control of our own organism, is extremely difficult. The Dry Leaves project is composed of nearly a million of medicine blister packs, in Polish commonly called “leaves” (“listek”), illuminated with the white light of a neon. The audience, especially children, often play with the rustling leaves. This situation can, I think, be read as a commentary on the condition of contemporary medicine. Children’s playing with the medicine blister packs can serve as a metaphor for diagnosing diseases at random.

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