Pharmacopia is a large, spectacularly colorful installation by Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth. Part of the group show “Sex. Drugs. Rock n Roll” at Gescheidle, it reflects on our obsession with drugs, both legal and illegal, and puts that obsession in terms of a crazed, overheated postmodern sensibility. A large chandelier made of hypodermic needles studded with beads hangs from the ceiling, sparkling but also menacing. A medicine cabinet has apparently crashed to the floor, where it’s surrounded by mirror shards, and artificial flowers festoon a toilet and the walls, as if plants have taken root in an abandoned bathroom. “We’re not trying to say any drug is wrong, just help people arrive at their own conclusions,” Roth says. She’s suffered from migraines since her youth and attributes her stomach problems to taking too much ibuprofen and aspirin. She became fascinated with chandeliers after seeing a particularly gaudy one in a shop: “It was so over-the-top it made the object cool again for me. The excessive sparkliness of the chandelier we built reminded me of rock-star drug culture.”
