Artworks

Pill packets arranged to look like a garden of flowers

Wowi Flower Garden 2020

Our Wowi Flower Garden features medicines for these common conditions seen in GP surgeries on a regular basis.

Sonia 2020

Sonia has had the auto-immune condition Lupus for thirty years

The artist Susie Freeman standing in the middle of a large circular piece with pills in the shapes of plants and flowers

WOWI – What Once Was Imagined 2020

10 metre wide circular installation illustrating medicine in the 21st century

Red sequins in fabric

Michele 2020

Michele has Polycythaemia Vera

Closeup of a beta blocker pill in fabric

Which Ones Have You Taken? 2020

See anything familiar?

Detail of blue fabric containing pill packaging

Wave 2020

Empty citalopram blister packs from a dozen years depression with anxiety

Colourful pill packets arranged to look like a flower

Cardi-O 2020

Cardi-O wowi flower to treat heart disease

A handbag decorated with Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives
A spiral of pills in fabric

Recognition 2020

Recognition

Pill packets arranged to look like exotic plants and flowers

Infection 2020

Infection wowi flower

Silver pill packets

Bristol Silver 2020

Bristol Silver

Sewing needles pinned through gold

My Mother wore a Corset 2020

My Mother wore a Corset

Huge vertical hanging covered in dots

Cradle to Grave – Pill Dot Diary Banners 2020

Cradle to Grave – Pill Dot Diary Banners

Cradle to Grave 2020

This is the centrepiece of the Living and Dying exhibition at the British Museum.

A wall of empty pill packaging

Holy Smoke at the RCGP 2020

A years worth of empty packets Holly saved us from all the lozenges she sucked to resist smoking…pieced together with tiny resistors Susie acquired in 1984.

A black man stands in blue printed fabric

Veil of Tears 2014

Malaria is the commonest cause of death amongst under-fives in Kenya; this installation considers the heavy burden borne by parents and children.

A drawing of people looking at a dress

Bacteriology Illustrated 2013

Text meets textile in this dress made from a complete medical textbook: over a hundred pages torn into 15,860 pieces.

Pill packets with day names in fabric

Indigestion 2013

One years supply of Lansoprazol, often used to treat the uncomfortable side effect of other medicines. In the UK we spend more money treating indigestion that we do treating cancer.

A jacket made with tiny pieces of food packaging
A fabric spiral of photos
A Cautionary Tale

A Cautionary Tale 2013

Looking good, but staying healthy?

Messages Bag 2013

Miniatures trapped in tiny knitted pockets reflect the abundance of foods; good, bad and beautiful we all navigate daily to choose what’s best for our health.

Lifesaver 2013

Antiretroviral drugs have transformed HIV from a death sentence into a difficult but not usually life limiting chronic disease

Femme Vitale 2013

3 metre high figurative sculpture containing ten years medication for one woman totalling 27,774 pills. Any woman with a waist measurement over 82 centimetres is at increased risk of developing diabetes.

Consulting Room 2011

The 10 minute appointment

A man, facing away, at the end of a corridor

Daglig Dosis – depression 2011

The population of Denmark is 5.5 million. It is estimated that 272,250 antidepressant pills are taken there each day

Contraceptive coil on a red background

First Love 2011

First Love is an exploration of how we think about the moment of conception.

A boy on TV, inhaling drugs for cystic fibrosis

Charlie 2011

Asthma is so common it is perceived as a normal medical condition, but a few children who suffer from a persistent cough turn out to have the much rarer genetic condition cystic fibrosis.

Last Rites

Last Rites 2011

The Ancient Greeks believed the butterfly was a symbol of the soul. Today we use a butterfly to ease our journey across the threshold between life and death.

A necklace of pills
Wieg tot Graf

Wieg tot Graf 2009

A look at the perception of health in the Netherlands, part of the Niet Normaal exhibition in Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam.

A woman's face half-obscured by pills

Side Effects 2009

Contemporary Dance Company dANTE OR dIE premier Cradle to Grave inspired new work Side Effects at The Place London

Dose

Dose 2009

Installation for Holloway Prison

Gretel

Gretel 2009

A new version of ‘Sweetie’, commissioned by the BBC’s Horizon

Agoraphobic’s Handbag

Purple Haze 2008

You must get out more Mrs Jones…

White Pain

White Pain 2007

A lifetime of dulling the pain.

A.N.Other

A.N.Other 2006

Pharmacopoeia work with inmates at Pentonville Prison, focusing on the themes of life, death, drugs and pharmaceuticals.

The Charnley Collection

Charnley Collection 2006

In honour of John Charnley’s pioneering work in orthopaedics, this commission for Wrightington Hospital connects the viewer with the experience of arthritis.

Table Talk quote: "Nowadays if someone asks me how long have I got..."

Table Talk 2004

HIV affects a whole spectrum of ordinary people, but many of them choose to keep their diagnosis private; Table Talk sets out to tell twelve very personal stories.

Staffroom

Staffroom 2002

Cigarette butts collected over a week

Miss Essex

Miss Essex 2002

A pharmaceutical snapshot of a troubled young woman.

Joe’s Decks

Joe’s Decks 2002

Every sport has its hazards.

Headache Turban 2001

2,500 paracetamol tablets can cost as little as £25—a stark contrast to Migraine Tiara

Vitamin Necklace

Vitamin Necklace 2001

Candy for the healthy? Self prescribing? Are alternatives effective? Pills bought over the counter from a local chemist.

Resistance

Resistance 2001

Multi-resistant ‘superbugs’ are an increasing threat.

Migraine Tiara

Migraine Tiara 2000

Just a handful of the most effective migraine medication can cost £45.

Sweetie

Sweetie 2000

Could you tell the difference?

A Packet a Week

A Packet a Week 2000

Question: what difference will smoking make to my pregnancy?

Microgynon Coat

Microgynon Coat 2000

A distinctive kind of contraception

The Pits

The Pits 2000

“From listening to Steve talking about his experience of clinical depression it becomes clear that this is very different from ordinary unhappiness.”

Hear No, See No, Speak No

Hear no, See no, Speak no 2000

Seemingly simple devices, but actual sounds have been heard, sights seen, and words spoken through this grommet, lens and valve.

Leftovers

Leftovers 2000

Every day, thousands of pills are disposed of because they were not needed or not taken by patients.

Diclofenac

Diclofenac 2000

Spot the odd one out.

Beekeeper’s Hat

Beekeeper’s Hat 2000

The invisible protection of antibiotics provide a physical barrier against bugs.

Armour

Armour 2000

Five years’ worth of protection for Mr Brittain.

Jubilee

Jubilee 2000

6,279 assorted contraceptive pills—to last until your silver wedding anniversary.

Come Dancing Too

Come Dancing Too 1999

A follow-up to Come Dancing. 5,500 pills or one Lippes Loop coil: 22 years of protection

Under Wraps

Under Wraps 1999

The menstrual narrative, from menarche to menopause.

Raw Materials

Raw Materials 1999

Some of the building blocks of medicine, mainstream and alternative.

Overnight Bag

The Overnight Bag 1999

What you might need for a good night out…

One for the Road

One for the Road 1999

One of the great success stories of medical engineering, an artificial hip joint relieves debilitating chronic pain, and obviates the need for a staggering quantity of pills.

Mr Minckton

Mr. Minckton 1999

A pharmaceutical case-study showing some of the potential for waste in prescribing.

Hip Hip

Hip Hip 1999

Relating directly to patients’ experiences, Hip Hip contrasts arthritis medicine with a real replacement hip used for twenty years.

O.T.C. Veil

O.T.C. Veil 1998

Pills bought over the counter

Come Dancing

Come Dancing 1998

6,500 pills or one Lippes Loop coil: 26 years of contraception.