Gift

The shape’s outline was drawn by hand, then made from two plaster parts turned on a lathe and assembled like a Kinder Egg. It encloses a void, and there is heroin on its surface. Just as the shape can serve as a container, it can also be contained within something else. Due to the porous, absorbent nature of plaster, the heroin covering it is invisible. The shape resembles a capsule or an egg—objects which can easily slip in or out. Heroin is both pain-relieving and addictive. There is an inherent paradox to being dependent on something that diminishes part of you. At the same time, heroin embodies the invisible structures (power hierarchies, the free market economy) which govern us. These structures envelop us like a thin film, controlling our actions without fundamentally altering who we are.

Photo: Ida Maria Gissel Aarkrog