Healing Remedies for Harmful Times

When was the last time you took an aspirin? A sleep aid? A vitamin or supplement? For many of us, pills are so routine they barely register. We carry them in bags and briefcases, store them in bathroom cabinets and desk drawers, and buy them in pharmacies that now double as walk-in clinics.

The word pharmacy comes from the Greek pharmakon, a term that can mean both remedy and poison. This duality lies at the heart of modern medicine. While pharmaceutical companies often promise simple solutions, healing is rarely simple. Medicine can save lives, but misused—or separated from care—it can also cause harm.

Feminist ethics of care remind us that healing depends on attentiveness, time, and relational labor—much of it historically carried out by women and workers of color, and routinely undervalued. Yet in an insurance-driven healthcare system, these slower circuits of care are often bypassed in favor of the quick fix: the pill.

By playing with scale, multiplying and dividing forms, and rethinking pills, prescriptions, and healthcare environments, the artists reveal systems of power, value, and exclusion. The works in Alternative Medicine also inspire new narratives of healing—stories of hope, self-care, and community support. Looking beyond the prescription pad, the artists imagine slow, interdependent networks of care that seek to repair not only bodies, but also the relationships that bind us together.

Alternative Medicine: Healing Remedies for Harmful Times is co-curated by John Corso-Esquivel, associate professor of art and Lia Rose Newman, director/curator and adjunct assistant professor.

Exhibiting Artists:
Barton Lidice Beneš – Susan Chen – Jess T. Dugan – Hugh Hayden – Bev Fishman – Jeana Eve Klein – Carolyn Lazard – An-My Lê – Frank C. Moore – Michele Pred – Luis Sahagún – Rudy Shepherd – Jean Shin – Duane Slick – Renée Stout – Fred Tomaselli – Jaune Quick-To-See Smith & Neal Ambrose-Smith