THE ART TALK MAGAZINE, Switzerland
“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vex’d a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears.”
– Romeo (Act I, Scene 1)
“If love is a drug, then Romeo and Juliet pushes that belief to its extremes. You might
have noticed that the play’s third biggest role after the lovers is Friar Laurence, the
play’s would-be pharmacist…
As most of us know, harmful substances can be medicinal in small doses, and this
was understood in Shakespeare’s day too…Our familiar word ‘pharmacy’ suggests
how both poison and cure are connected: it comes from the Greek word ‘pharmakon’
and means both toxin and remedy”. (The Shakespeare Globe Trust, 2019)
I cannot think of a better representation of the duality of love and medicines than
Shakespear ‘s play “Romeo and Juliet”. My installation entitled “Remedy or Poison”,
2011, consisting of three stained glass windows made of pills blisters and a
contraceptives blister with pills in the centre, concerns this duality of things in life.
Medicines, Love, Religion… everything is connected, and everything is potentially a
cure or a poison.
Peggy Kliafa
