Project 2

Michael Craig-Martin

Damien Hirst

The theme for my Project 2 is prescriptive drugs. I was mainly inspired by two artists: Michael Craig-Martin and Damien Hirst. My designs reflect the clean, precise lines that are seen in both artists' work. Damien Hirst's pharmacy series use pills and capsules to build installations and I was wowed by the dramatic effect they can achieve. I was also inspired by a piece that I saw at the British Museum earlier this year. The installation is call Cradle to Grave by Pharmacopoeia and the piece incorporates a lifetime supply of prescribed drugs knitted into two lengths of fabric. Each length contains over 14,000 drugs, the estimated average prescribed to every person in Britain in their lifetime (see British Museum website). The piece draws emphasis on how our lives and society are saturated by necessary or unnecessary drugs. Viewers are shocked by the amount of drugs that we take in, and we are made to rethink the over-celebrated medical advancement.

Cradle to Grave by Pharmacopoeia

I also want to explore similar ideas in my designs. I use a lot of clusters of pills in my drawings to imply that we have become too dependent on prescriptive drugs. Medical advancement could be a double-edged sword that works both ways: to improve our health and to destroy it. Additionally, for the four designs, I tried to accentuate one of the four design elements – movement, repetition, balance and emphasis&economy - in each piece, although all of the four elements can be found in different pieces.

Movement

For this drawing, I tried to capture the moment of capsules fall from the sky and the content is pulled out by gravity. I wanted it to look like a still frame from a continuous film and the capsules will continue to fall if you hit the “play” button. In addition, I used lines and values on various parts of the drawings so that the blocks of black will move your eyes around when you look at the design.

Repetition

For this design, I applied principle of repetition. I created clusters of pills of different kinds to convey the notion that our society is over-saturated by prescriptive drugs. I played with scale and used pills of different scales to create layers. I also put a letter “D” on one of the pills to create a focal point so that can make repetition more interesting.

Balance

For this design, I tried to emphasize on balance. The drawing has one large capsules in the foreground and a few smaller pills in the background. These two almost feel like the same weight because the number and size of the pills balance each other out. The black space at the bottom and at the top of the drawing also implies a sense of balance. I also tried to add some interesting features to the drawing so I created an imaginary lighting that gives the two piles of pills opposite shadows. The shadows will not make sense in the real world so they add a sense of fantasy to the otherwise “realistic” objects.

Emphasis and Economy

For this drawing, I tried to draw viewers' eyes directly to the cluster of pills while keeping other parts simple. My idea is that, people are normally curious about what's there behind closed doors, so their eyes will go directly to the objects (the pills) behind the semi-open doors. Therefore putting the drugs “behind a door” could help me create a focal point that draws most attention from the viewers. However, I could have further simplified lines on the door to exaggerate the effect, as the contrast of the cluster of pills and the minimal representation of the door could better direct viewers' eyes.