Points of Decline is a haunting scannography work that delves deep into the fragile intersection between mental health and the pharmaceutical system. Using psychiatric medication as its primary material, the piece captures pills in motion across the surface of a flatbed scanner, creating an organic glitch that evokes both disintegration and continuity.
The medication, usually associated with stability and control, is subjected to an unpredictable and visceral distortion, as the motion of the pills across the scanner bed fractures their form and intention, transforming them into something both alien and familiar.
As the pills move, they blur and shatter across the image plane, their shapes stretching and twisting in an erratic dance. The glitch itself is not a manufactured effect, but an organic consequence of the scanning process, where the imperfect, human element is allowed to disrupt the rigid digital precision. This chaotic motion reflects the erratic nature of mental health struggles — the fragmentation of self and the distorted perception that often accompanies psychiatric conditions. The pills, symbols of attempted healing, become unsettling in their vulnerability as they are forced to exist outside the rigid confines of their intended use.
The series acts as a visual meditation on the complexity of mental health treatment — the cyclical relationship between treatment and decline, healing and breakdown. The fluidity of the pills in motion is an embodied metaphor for the instability that psychiatric conditions often bring, while the glitch, emerging from the collision of organic movement with digital technology, evokes the fractured state of the mind in moments of crisis.
Points of Decline is both a commentary on the pharmaceutical industry’s role in mental health and a personal exploration of the struggle between hope and despair. The organic glitch in the imagery refuses to offer easy answers, reflecting the dissonance that exists between the clinical, the chemical, and the human experience. The work transcends the sterile, calculated nature of pharmaceutical treatments, revealing the raw emotional and psychological terrain beneath the surface.
In this intimate confrontation, the artwork forces a reconsideration of what healing looks like — messy, imperfect, and filled with moments of disintegration. The pills, in their fractured state, become both the cause and the symbol of decline, yet within their distortion, there is also a glimmer of transformation, a reminder that even in moments of breakdown, there is potential for reconfiguration and renewal. Points of Decline is a visual reflection of the human psyche in flux, a meditation on fragility, impermanence, and the complex journey through mental health.