Side Effects was a body of work consisting of pharmaceutical portraits that went on display at Ocean Coffee Roasters in Providence from mid-July through September 10th, 2003. The pharmaceuticals in the series included antibiotic, antipsychotic, and antidepressant medications. I used a scanner to obtain ultra-high definition images of actual pills which I then modified in Photoshop, and printed on high gloss photo paper.
The Metronidazole series was comprised of 69 images of the drug metronidazole, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections of the vagina, stomach, liver, skin, joints, brain, and respiratory tract. Each print was 8.5″x 8.5″ and were created in editions of 5
The Antipsychotic Series consisted of Zyprexa #46, Abilify #6, Serequil #11, Rispiridone #12, and Geodon #9. The were two formats – the smaller format prints were 8.5″ x 8.5″, while the larger format prints were 24.5″ x 24.5″.
After the initial Ocean Coffee Roasters installation, I exhibited select large format antipsychotic portraits at Woods-Gerry Gallery and another image from another series at the Biltmore in Providence.
Of Respirdone #12, Petra Kuppers wrote that “the flash of science, and its miraculous color effects, beams, transpositions, and traversals, glistens on the photo paper” in her book, The Scar Of Visibility: Medical Performances And Contemporary Art published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2007.
Digital ink-jet prints:
Antipsychotic Series (small format): 8.5″ x 8.5″
Antipsychotic Series (large format): 24.5″ x 24.5″
Paxil series: 8.5″ x 8.5″
Metronidazole series: 8.5″ x 8.5″, editions of 5