Safe and Effective Medication

Tumbling out of a run-of-the-mill pharmacy bag, aren’t pills, but diamonds. Ironic? Yes. Plays with our expectations? Yes. But Simmons’ work also makes us question what we often take for granted. The jolt is playful, but sinister. Are the diamonds meant to be drugs, or are the drugs the diamonds themselves as precious as the diamonds? Do we see consumer products as a cure or, at least, a treatment? Or are the drugs the real treasure here? In each work, the three-dimensional paper bag grounds us in a quotidian errand, however, the diamonds are not three-dimensional, they are paper thin and totally flat. The cut-outs, juxtaposed against the bag, are not ‘real’ at all.

In this series, we are confronted with conflicting realities: are we the purchaser, or the patient?

The De Beers family notoriously and ingeniously have manipulated the diamond market, hoarding and releasing to keep supplies low and prices high. In much the same way, Big Pharma have monopolized their patents, treatments, and cures. The conflation of these two apparently conflicting objects in Simmons’ work is deliberate, forcing us to question the value of a venerated consumer good, like a diamond, as well as the market for medication; both are controlled substances with high barriers to entry. But, faced with the sheer number of jewels - whether you see diamonds or drugs - we are confronted with the blunt reality that having a lot of something may feel powerful, but ultimately devalues the item itself.