Medicine Meets Art in Lifetime 28,000-Pill Display

Medicine Meets Art in 28,000-Pill Display
Oct 30

LONDON Oct 29 (Reuters) - A display of 28,000 pills representing a typical couple's lifetime consumption of medicinal drugs will form the centerpiece of a exhibition at the new Wellcome gallery, which opens next week at the British Museum.

"Cradle To The Grave," created by artists Susie Freeman and David Critchley and family doctor Liz Lee, is described as a "contemporary British approach to wellbeing."

Their contribution consists of two lengths of fabric, 13 meters long by 1.5 meters wide, stitched with tablets that a typical man or woman may have taken during their lifetime.

Lee used the medical records of her patients to produce the fictitious life histories of a 76-year-old man and an 82-year-old woman.

Alongside the landscape will be family photographs and documents and other medical devices such as a hearing aid, which mark their progress through life.

The installation forms part of the "Living and Dying" exhibition, which shows the diverse ways cultures around the world seek to minimize life's adversities.