Museum mounts art exhibition
An exhibition of contemporary art based on images of
old medicine bottles has opened in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
headquarters building, where it will run until 4 January 2002.
Entitled “Secret remedies”, the exhibition has been
mounted by the Society’s museum and is the first ever showing of contemporary
art within its display spaces. The artworks have been inspired by exhibits
in the museum’s collections.
The works on display are all by British-born artist
Michelle Charles, who has recently returned to live and work in London
after 18 years exhibiting and teaching in New York. Much of her work has
focused on images of everyday objects and their inherent relationship
to the human body. Since 1998 one of her sources has been objects and
ideas found among the collections of the Society’s museum — the reason
she chose the museum as the venue for her show.
The exhibits are all displayed on the building’s
first floor or mezzanine floor. Overlooking a seating area outside the
President’s office on the first floor is a large exhibit consisting of
25 individually framed photograms, each produced by projecting light through
an old medicine bottle placed in direct contact with photochemical paper.
This work, entitled “Lydia Pinkham Cure All #3”, has been purchased by
the museum and will remain on display after the exhibition closes. The
title refers to Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, “a positive cure
for all those painful complaints and weaknesses common to our best female
population”, which was marketed by Mrs Pinkham in the US in 1873 and still
available as late as 1978.
Displayed prominently opposite the first floor lift
doors is a piece consisting of 18 images of medicine bottles painted in
oils on old textbooks. The title of this work, “Secret remedies #2”, and
that of the exhibition itself, is taken from one such book — a 1909 listing
revealing the “secret” ingredients of hundreds of brand name medicines.
The exhibition opened on the evening of 11 October
with a special viewing for guests invited by the museum and the artist.
The exhibition is open between 9.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Admission
is free, but pre-booking is advised.
On Saturday 17 November at 2.30pm Michelle Charles
will give an illustrated lecture on how some of the pieces seen in the
exhibition were made. Admission will be £4 (concessions £2.50) and pre-booking
is advised. During the exhibition she will also run two educational workshops
designed for secondary school and sixth form pupils. Full details of all
these events, which are supported by the Wellcome Trust, can be obtained
from the museum office on 020 7572 2210.
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