Viewing Miss Bugs: Do No Harm — The Dispensary

For a dose of arresting art, scoot over to Jealous East in Shoreditch where you’ll find a major new installation by mixed media artist collaboration Miss Bugs. Mashing up the worlds of contemporary art, big pharma and fast food, Do No Harm — The Dispensary addresses themes of addiction, advertising and consumerism, while interrogating the role that art has played in this cycle over the years.

The installation features more than 6000 supersized capsules and tablets, which are displayed around — and spewing out from — a sentient vending machine named Damien. Among them are 800 unique poured resin capsules, each containing a discarded junk food wrapper from the likes of McDonalds, Hubba Bubba and Monster Munch.

Also included are 200 ‘Fast Chalk’ pills. Shaped in the form of Viagra and Oxycontin tablets, they are emblazoned with familiar fast food slogans like ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ and ‘America Runs on Dunkin’.

‘Imagine a world where Willy Wonka doesn’t want to give you a golden ticket; he just wants to get you hooked,’ said Miss Bugs. ‘Judging by American TV, that’s the world we’re already living in; slice of pizza in one hand, remote control in the other, eyeballs glued to a non-stop carousel of Coca-Cola, followed by Statins, then back to Burger King, then returning to Valium. Back and forth – junk to meds – on every channel. Consumer capitalism has won!’
This is a visually provocative show that’s worthy of a weekend jaunt to Shoreditch.