Inspired by contemporary society’s obsession with perfection and beauty, and the fear of perceived ‘abnormalities’, these artworks explore diseases and medical conditions through the manipulation of ceramic objects. Illness and disease form part of our history, but because of attached stigma there is a tendency to hide evidence of ill health, rather than accepting it as part of everyday experience. The theme was informed by research in London’s medical museums, how medical specimens are displayed and people’s attitudes towards health and medicine. 

Medical Heirlooms is a collection of ceramic apothecary jars, which appear to have been affected by various hereditary diseases by using ceramics to emulate the physiological processes. Based on 17th-18th Century drug jars, the forms have strong historical and medical links, as well as providing the metaphor of vessel as body. They become containers for disease, rather than holding the cure. The jars represent family heirlooms that can be passed down through the generations in the same way as the hereditary medical conditions: a legacy of ill health.

Pieces from the Medical Heirlooms collection have been acquired for the permanent collections of several museums throughout the world, including Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the French National Collection (CNAP) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, as well as two prestigious Knowledge Quarter institutions, the Wellcome Collection and the UAL Art Collection at Central Saint Martins.

Commissioned by 1 Triton Square by British Land and Royal London Asset Management. Curated by New Public in partnership with Cockpit Studios.