health
Racheal Crowther review
Chisenhale Gallery, LondonThe Irish artist scrambles your brain by cleverly combining calming pastel pinks with austere military health units and suffocating smells
TL;DR
- The exhibition features a decontaminated US-built mobile health unit used by British forces, bought by the artist at a military auction.
- The unit was used in decontamination efforts after the 2018 Novichok nerve agent assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal.
- The gallery is painted in Baker-Miller pink, a color used in US jail cells to calm inmates.
- The scent in the gallery is created from substances associated with powdered milk and includes hexadecanal, a compound found on human skin that affects aggression differently in men and women.
- Crowther explores color and scent as tools of psychological operations (psyops), industrialization, and militarization.
- The installation questions the nature of state-controlled health and who benefits from individuals being fit and cared for.
- The overall experience aims to create a feeling of paranoia and suspicion about institutions that provide care.