Pill Sculptures

The pill sculptures exist on the precipice between control and loss of it, fact and fiction, reality and illusion,
well-being and ill-health. The sophistication in their conception and their technical accuracy allows us to immediately notice what might have been previously ignored. Despite the common presence of pills in our lives to quickly arrest all sorts of pains and disorders, the subtle elegance of their design may have inadvertently escaped us until all of the features are scaled-up, and subject to a degree of parody. Work titled Pretty Pony, Smiley Pill, and Single Dose provide ample illustrations of the playfulness at work, while Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time has a more melancholic edge.

The discussion of private medication is one which appears to be a final taboo. Perhaps it is because of the association that pills have with addiction and an inexorable aspiration for the perfect life mindset. Leonardo DaVinci investigated medical operations in ways that would now be viewed as unethical in his quest for anatomical discoveries. Rembrandt painted scenes of operating tables and Damien Hirst viewed medicine containers as a contemporary form of sculpture, presenting them in Duchampian fashion out of context and in public art galleries.

Coady’s contribution to this artistic Pantheon shifts the scale and scope of themes which could be explored. Offering sumptuous “lolly shop” appeal Coady’s pill works playfully perform their theatrical parody with an alluring aesthetic that belies a darker humorous subtext.

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