Did you forget your Pills?, 2026
Oil on canvas with wood frame & sculptures
80,5 cm x 60,5 cm
Artist’s Statement
Did you forget your pills? asks the question: Are you coping with everything happening within your life? Taking the pill bug as its point of departure, the work draws on the creature’s instinct to curl into a defensive sphere when threatened.
In the artwork, the artist identifies with the pill bug, holding it tenderly and closely, waiting for it to open. But simultaneously, she is burdened with the metaphor it represents: this constant need to try and cope with all the uncertainty within an absurd and overwhelming existence.
Wearing her father’s suit and tie paired with her mother’s wedding dress, the artist is commenting on a fear for the future while being overwhelmed by social scripts of what we should do and how we should act, contributing to this anxiety of perfection and the need to cope with it. The composition mirrors this unease. Realistically rendered figures occupy the foreground, while the background collapses into a deliberately simplified space. Sculptural pill bugs extend onto the frame itself, disrupting the boundary between artwork and viewer.
Nowadays, it has become easy to get lost in all the noise. Pondering and worrying about our reality. But this artwork doesn’t give any answers. Instead, it is having an open conversation. Are you managing to cope, or did you forget your pills?
