April 2024

Prescription Care

Last month, Isra Amsdr, a POPCORN Research Advisor, invited Carla Southward, POPCORN Patient Engagement Coordinator, to In My Body, Through My Eyes, an art exhibition at OCAD, where they were showcasing their installation, Prescription Care. Carla was so moved to be invited, and completely floored by the thoughtful and creative piece that is Prescription Care. She asked Isra if they could kindly share their work with POPCORN members. Below is Isra’s description of the artwork and a link to their art statement can be found here.

Written By: Isra Amsdr, Youth Partner

Prescription Care looks at the intersection of culture and medicalization. Amidst the incessant medicalization my life has necessitated and consequently undergone, culture has been the component within my care to recurrently prevail.

Prescription Care was created during a period in which my life was completely overtaken by medicalization - requiring continuous planning and problem-solving. Taking up mindless tasks became rather therapeutic and would give my brain the break it needed from constantly engaging in discouraging and draining interactions with the medical system. I began this work by filling the 1000 empty pill capsules. The repetitive process of opening each capsule, filling it with a precise amount of the sugar, simple syrup, and red ink mixture, followed by a precise amount of peanut oil, and then closing the capsule, felt like it would detach my mind from all that was happening. I was able to still feel “productive” without all the in-depth thinking every other part of my life demanded.
 
The traditional Jordanian curtains have been something that I have held onto for many years. They used to be put up in my family’s living room, but after a few years, it was time for them to get taken down. I refused to let my mom donate or discard them in any way. They have since sat in recycling bags on the floor of my closet, on the premise that I was going to do something with them.

Description: Two traditional Jordanian curtains hang from the ceiling, each draped in a cylindrical shape. The curtains are sewn with several portions of the fabric selectively bunched into rosettes. Within the rosettes and the drapes of the fabric, 1000 clear pills half filled with a mixture of sugar, simple syrup, and red ink, and half filled with peanut oil are dispersed and tucked into the crevices and folds of the curtains. Both curtains are illuminated from the inside out with a spotlight.

Throughout the years of being sick, I repeatedly got asked how I dealt with it all – how did I manage multiple life-limiting disabilities, school, work, and all the everyday tasks of an average person. During my last year of undergrad, this question emerged more than usual. I had spent the year prior at home due to a lack of healthcare in the province of my university, then returned for my final year visibly disabled – no longer invisibly disabled. I often times respond with a forced smile and the words, “I don’t really have much of a choice”, but I have come to realize that choice has only carried me so far. My culture – the people, the places, the things, that make up this whirlwind of a thing we call culture, have carried me that extra mile to want to pursue life beyond the medicalization that has been forced upon me.
 
The embedding of the pills within the curtain speaks to the magnitude and visibility culture has eclipsed in comparison to the medicalization within my life. From afar, the pills are merely red speckles – they are not visibly seen as pills until up close. This speaks to the triviality of the medicalization within my life—so minuscule, so peripheral, so overlooked—when compared to the prominence of culture.

To learn more about ways to get involved in POPCORN research, please email:

Carla Southward, Patient, Family, and Engagement Coordinator
carla.southward@sickkids.ca.