Pharmacia Poetica
The Pharmacia Poetica is an on-going installation that explores the transformative power of
sound and images.
The purpose of the Pharmacia Poetica is to demonstrate how the
literal becomes the lyrical and in so
doing, cures. Like any apothecary, the Pharmacia Poetica offers
a mixture of remedies. These include
sound, poetry, metalanguage, images, and objects, the main feature of
which is a collection of glass
bottles in which the hidden beauty of commonplace objects, suspended
in liquid, is revealed.
Inspired by the writing of Paracelsus and Marsilio Ficino, the Pharmacia
first appeared in 1987 as an
exhibition in a storefront gallery in Hollywood and as a radio play
on KPFK in Los Angeles. Since then
the Pharmacia Poetica has travelled throughout the United States
and Europe, often in collaboration with other
visual artists and writers. Among the places where it has appeared are
the following:
- Radio play on KPFK's "Soundings"with composer Steve Moshier.
- Rebel Art Gallery, Hollywood, California.
- Sonrisa, Los Angeles, California.
- Albright College Campus Center, Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania.
- Williams Lamb Gallery, Long Beach, California.
- New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
- 40 Years of California Assemblage, Wight Gallery, Univeristy of California,
Los Angeles.
- Window Installation collaboration with John O'Brien, Contemporary
Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California.
- "The Fifth Essence", group show, Gracie Mansion, New York, New York.
- Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- Melkfabriek, Den Bosch, Holland.
- Gallerie Oko collaboration with Milos Vojechovsky, Amsterdam, Holland.
- Free Clinic Benefit Auction, Los Angeles, California.
- Window Installation, Stephen Johnson PCA, Venice, California.
- Het Vertel Festival, Gent, Belgium.
- "Influx", group show, Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago.
- "Drei", group show, Kulturzentrum Altes Rathaus, Wuerselen, Germany.
- Colllabroation with Monique Darge, Logos Foundation, Gent, Belgium.
- Karbon, Zuerich, Switzerland.
- Performance/Slideshow collaboration with Allessandra Beradi, Al Centro
D'Arte Masaorita, Bologna, Italy.
- Outside the Frame: Performance Art & the Object, 50 Year Survey
of Performance Art in the US, --Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio.
- Outside the Frame: Performance Art & the Object, Newhouse Center
of Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor, Cultural Center, Staten Island, New
York.
- Nonsequitur Music Gallery with Steve Roden, Alburquerque, New Mexico.
- Out Auction, Directors Guild, Los Angeles, California.
- "Ear as Eye", group show, L.A.C.E., Los Angeles, California.
- "L.A. Slide," group show, The Living Room, Santa Monica, California.
- "118W/24N", group show, Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz, Austria.
- Dirt, Hollywood, California.
- L.A. Poetry Festival, Los Angeles , California.
- Gerlessborgsskolan, Gerlessborg, Sweden
- "Fa So La Brmm...," three-person show, El Camino College, Torrance, California
- "Celebrating 21 Years of Pharmacia Poetica," L Salon, Los Angeles, Californai
PRESCRIPTION