Beverly Fishman American, b. 1955
Untitled (Obama), 2010
Unique cast resin with phosphorescent pigment
12 x 9 x 1 in
30.5 x 22.9 x 2.5 cm
30.5 x 22.9 x 2.5 cm
6405
Beverly Fishman’s highly-polished Pill Reliefs utilize iconic pharmaceutical forms as the basis for seemingly abstract compositions that radiate with color. Made with industrial materials like urethane automotive paint, cast resin,...
Beverly Fishman’s highly-polished Pill Reliefs utilize iconic pharmaceutical forms as the basis for seemingly abstract compositions that radiate with color. Made with industrial materials like urethane automotive paint, cast resin, phosphorescent pigments and medium-density fiberboard (MDF), the works sometimes reference a single pill form and other times present an assemblage of pill forms — a chemical cocktail. Some manifestations of this body of work include pill forms from the street, like ecstasy, that exist outside of the corporate pharmaceutical industry but that are perceived by the end users in similar ways. Fishman is especially interested in celebrity images, like Bart Simpson or President Obama, that have been appropriated by pill manufacturers. As Fishman states, they “propose that — like our overmedicated population — art, too, chases a chemical sublime.”