THE RITUAL OF PRESCRIPTION
art installation
june 2020
london
artist:
molly bonnell
can the aesthetics of care act as a tool to reconsider medical routines in isolation?
by crafting new and unfamiliar medical routines, such as taking prescription medicine, this project questions the societal and individual value placed on health and the systems that support it, as well as a reflection on the nature of medicine itself and its relationship to human ritual.this project was created while shielding in london during the first covid-19 lockdown.
healthcare is a human right. access to the systems that provide this care is essential.
in 2020, the nhs mailed letters to 1.5 million people in the uk deemed ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’, advising them to practice shielding measures in order to protect themselves from covid-19. one of the at-risk conditions was cystic fibrosis, a disease i have lived with my entire life.for the first time, many are confronted by the reality of their own medical vulnerability.the mundane routines of healthcare at home became elevated to the priority event of daily life.
however, there is simultaneously a lack of understanding of healthcare as we constantly, without a second thought, transform our bodies through medicine.
relying on domestic materials, such as sugar, the ritual of prescription is a series of speculative objects that amplify my personal healthcare rituals during this period of isolation with the aim to counter the current over-medicalization of healthcare and encourage a hypersensitivity to the ways we interact with and care for our bodies.
by crafting new and unfamiliar medical routines, such as taking prescription medicine, this project questions the societal and individual value placed on health and the systems that support it, as well as a reflection on the nature of medicine itself and its relationship to human ritual.this project was created while shielding in london during the first covid-19 lockdown.
healthcare is a human right. access to the systems that provide this care is essential.
in 2020, the nhs mailed letters to 1.5 million people in the uk deemed ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’, advising them to practice shielding measures in order to protect themselves from covid-19. one of the at-risk conditions was cystic fibrosis, a disease i have lived with my entire life.for the first time, many are confronted by the reality of their own medical vulnerability.the mundane routines of healthcare at home became elevated to the priority event of daily life.
however, there is simultaneously a lack of understanding of healthcare as we constantly, without a second thought, transform our bodies through medicine.
relying on domestic materials, such as sugar, the ritual of prescription is a series of speculative objects that amplify my personal healthcare rituals during this period of isolation with the aim to counter the current over-medicalization of healthcare and encourage a hypersensitivity to the ways we interact with and care for our bodies.
