Joyce Overheul

“Dr. Pill”

Wissel 768 9 juni 2016

Dr. Pill

The work of visual artist Joyce Overheul ('s-Hertogenbosch, 1989) plays with the borders between art and daily life, between art and non-art. She uses social experiments, performance and film to investigate human behaviour, the way people behave, why they do so and how to manipulate or alter their actions. She invites people to participate in various projects and often they are happy to do so without questioning the underlying objective, intentions or possible consequences. Overheul creates situations and subsequently observes how people react and act under these staged conditions, not knowing that they are part of an artwork. By doing this, she blurs the lines between art and reality – the reactions are immediate and earnest, even though the situation is artificial.

In her work, she often pays particular attention to our behaviour in relatively new situations, like behaving ourselves online or on social media, and how willing people are to share their private information or reveal things about themselves online. Through her experiments, she researches how whole groups of people can be prompted or manipulated into behaving in a certain way and what motivates them to act as they do.

The work “Dr. Pill”, which is exhibited in de Aanschouw from the 9^th till the 16^th of June, is a result of people responding to an advertisement posted by Overheul on different online platforms asking readers to send her a dose of their daily medication in order for her to create one single pill.

Over 60 people joined the project, sending her more than 180 different pills varying from vitamin C to liquid morphine. The medication was grinded and molded into a large pill with the name Dr. Pill, containing 142 active ingredients in total. The pill comes with a patient information leaflet listing all active ingredients, effects and side effects – according to this leaflet, the pill will cause 207 effects and 902 side effects and will undoubtedly kill the consumer. Hence the subtitle of the work “The answer to all your problems” - it will indeed put a definite end to any and all diseases and other troubles one might have.

The Dr. Pill-project is among other things an example of how easy it can be to manipulate people to share parts of their private lives, and it illustrates how uncritically we - at times - accept situations and stories. It also became an example of how art and reality sometimes blend together in unexpected ways: When Overheul in 2012 wished to exhibit the work in Sweden, the Dutch government put together a team of pharmacists to help decide if the pill was an artwork or in fact an illegal form of medication containing both morphine, opiates and many other pills which are illegal to own without a prescription. In the eyes of the government, the pill crossed the borders between art and reality - it was in the end deemed illegal for the pill to leave the country, and Overheul had to make a 'placebo pill' to exhibit in Sweden.

Curator: Lise Sinnbeck

Fotografie: Jeroen Arians

Labels

22 Conceptueel 16 Licht 54 Ruimtelijk

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Dr. Pill The work of visual artist Joyce Overheul ('s-Hertogenbosch, 1989) plays with the borders between art and daily life, between art and non-art. She uses social experiments, performance and film to investigate human behaviour, the way people behave, why they do so and how to manipulate or alter their actions. She invites people to participate in various projects and often they are happy to do so without questioning the underlying objective, intentions or possible consequences. Overheul creates situations and subsequently observes how people react and act under these staged conditions, not knowing that they are part of an artwork. By doing this, she blurs the lines between art and reality – the reactions are immediate and earnest, even though the situation is artificial. In her work, she often pays particular attention to our behaviour in relatively new situations, like behaving ourselves online or on social media, and how willing people are to share their private information or reveal things about themselves online. Through her experiments, she researches how whole groups of people can be prompted or manipulated into behaving in a certain way and what motivates them to act as they do. The work “Dr. Pill”, which is exhibited in de Aanschouw from the 9th till the 16th of June, is a result of people responding to an advertisement posted by Overheul on different online platforms asking readers to send her a dose of their daily medication in order for her to create one single pill. Over 60 people joined the project, sending her more than 180 different pills varying from vitamin C to liquid morphine. The medication was grinded and molded into a large pill with the name Dr. Pill, containing 142 active ingredients in total. The pill comes with a patient information leaflet listing all active ingredients, effects and side effects – according to this leaflet, the pill will cause 207 effects and 902 side effects and will undoubtedly kill the consumer. Hence the subtitle of the work “The answer to all your problems” - it will indeed put a definite end to any and all diseases and other troubles one might have. The Dr. Pill-project is among other things an example of how easy it can be to manipulate people to share parts of their private lives, and it illustrates how uncritically we - at times - accept situations and stories. It also became an example of how art and reality sometimes blend together in unexpected ways: When Overheul in 2012 wished to exhibit the work in Sweden, the Dutch government put together a team of pharmacists to help decide if the pill was an artwork or in fact an illegal form of medication containing both morphine, opiates and many other pills which are illegal to own without a prescription. In the eyes of the government, the pill crossed the borders between art and reality - it was in the end deemed illegal for the pill to leave the country, and Overheul had to make a 'placebo pill' to exhibit in Sweden.

Ruimtelijk