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Miss Bugs | Do No Harm - The Dispensary

Miss Bugs

Jealous East

12 Aug 2022 — 04 Sep 2022

A MARS A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY Miss Bugs remixes art, drugs and junk food with major new installation

Mixed media artist Miss Bugs is to launch a major new installation at London’s Jealous Gallery, mashing up the worlds of contemporary art, big pharma and fast food. 18 months in the making, Do No Harm – The Dispensary features more than 6,000 supersized capsules and tablets, displayed around – and spewing out from – a ‘sentient’ vending machine.

Among the artworks are 800 vibrantly coloured, poured resin capsules, each containing a discarded junk food wrapper. Every capsule in the installation is unique, with more than 100 variants from corporate giants like McDonalds and Coca-Cola, to childhood favourites Hubba Bubba and Monster Munch. Also featured are 200 remixed ‘Fast Chalk’ pills, cheekily mashing up the recognisable shapes of Viagra and Oxycontin with familiar fast food slogans like ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ and ‘America Runs on Dunkin’’. Photo credit: Peter Mallet

Imagine a world where Willy Wonka doesn’t want to give you a golden ticket; he just wants to get you hooked. Judging by American TV, that’s the world we’re already living in; slice of pizza in one hand, remote control in the other, eyeballs glued to a non-stop carousel of Coca-Cola, followed by Statins, then back to Burger King, then returning to Valium. Back and forth – junk to meds – on every channel. Consumer capitalism has won!

Miss Bugs

At the centre of the exhibition sits the ‘sentient’ vending machine, Damien, a totemic sculpture on a mountain of oversized tablets, commanding visitors to the space to buy, buy, buy with a looping track that splices the Oompa Loompa song with monotone lists of pharmaceutical side effects. Photo Credit: Peter Mallet

Scan the QR code to find the full works list!

Inspired by a sleepless night watching TV commercials in a US motel room, Do No Harm – The Dispensary unpacks the themes of addiction, advertising and unchecked consumerism that have come to characterise the Do No Harm series. Photo Credit: Peter Mallet

The installation also interrogates the role that art itself plays in this, drawing on modern and contemporary artists like Warhol and Hirst to explore the longstanding relationship between art and consumer brands. Photo Credit: David Green

Each piece in the installation has been individually hand-crafted by the artist over a period of 18 months. Photo Credit: Peter Mallet

Miss Bugs

Artist

Miss Bugs was founded in 2007, originally coming from a background in photography and graphics. Sometimes referred to as a ‘visual DJ’, Miss Bugs takes iconic imagery from pop culture and art history and remixes it through a variety of mixed media methods. Previously featured in the Saatchi Gallery, the Do No Harm series has already remixed familiar items including ice lollies and hypodermic needles, to raise questions about the influence of technology and the darker side of social media. They have had sell out shows in New York, LA, San Francisco, Paris and London and their artwork is in a number of significant private collections around the world.
missbugs.com @ miss_bugs