In 2014 I had the idea to draw a bottle of “Self Loathing”, which sparked the idea of making a bunch of glass bottles with negative emotions on the labels, like old--timey snake oil elixirs. My Apathecary involved studying vintage typography, collecting bottles, drawing, picking out evocative words, and learning how to screenprint. Parts of The Apathecary have been shown at various art markets in 2023-2024, and at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre’s membership show in 2023. Ten years later, I have finally been able to show The Apathecary in full at two gallery exhibitions!
Etymology and Entomology
Bleeding Heart Art Space very graciously hosted The Apathecary from November 2 - December 7, 2024. My bottles were gathered together in a full wall of cabinet shelving alongside Ilan Domnich’s shadow boxes of bugs and flora on the remaining walls. Ilan and I both gave artist talks for the closing reception on December 7.
The Apathecary and Entomologia et Natura shared a “cabinet of curiosities” aesthetic and approach, examining both etymology (words) and entomology (bugs) from an artistic perspective using mostly found materials. In the main gallery, Reliquaries had similar themes of found materials and DIY-approaches to memory, nature, and emotion. Butterflies and preservation were reoccuring motifs between all three exhibitions.
Studies of Emotion
The Apathecary has its second showing at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre from January 10 - February 15, 2025. The bottles are displayed on floating shelves and podiums, with original sketches and drawings, as well as a collection of digital prints. I have the whole Incubator space to myself, and it’s really interesting seeing how different the installation feels compared to the space at Bleeding Heart. It’s much more open and there’s a lot more focus on the bottles as 3D objects. I also made a series of 8 larger designs on larger bottles, so there’s a lot more movement along the shelves.
In the Main Gallery, Andrzej Maciejewski’s Ephemeral Fields is a series of large scale photographs of close-up details of notebooks from the artist’s late father. The photographs are both scientifically minded and emotionally loaded - a particularly fascinating pairing with The Apathecary.
The exhibition opens on Friday, January 10 at 7 pm, and I’ll be giving an artist talk at the reception.
I look forward to seeing you there!
