Mr Pharmaceuticals

Mr Pharmaceuticals (2017) is a short film never intended to be made. Recorded at an ashram while London-based artist Hannah Perry was on a three-week retreat at the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India, the film is a snippet of a conversation Perry had with another retreat member in the smoking area. Discussing evolutionary science and the connection of science to spirituality, the conversation turned to the idea of thought detached from consciousness and, perhaps fittingly, Perry decide to press the record button on her phone. A declaration of anxiety by the artist leads to the analogy of a TV running in the background. Her interlocutor proposes a metaphor: a rose as a moment of joy. Drifting into a space both vulnerable and affecting for the artist, Mr Pharmaceuticals remembers a fleeting yet important exchange: a private moment of solace now shared.
– Paul Teasdale

Hannah Perry’s Mr Pharmaceuticals is screened as part of Random Acts on Channel 4 on Monday 21 August at midnight.

Hannah Perry lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Viruses Worth Spreading’, Arsenal Contemporary, New York (2016); ‘100 Problems’, CFA, Berlin (2016); ‘Mercury Retrograde, Seventeen, London (2015); ‘You’re gonna be great’, Jeanine Hofland, Amsterdam (2015). Upcoming projects include solo exhibitions at Somerset House, London, and KM –Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (both 2018). Perry is working on a series of performances as part of a larger exploration, the first being presented at Zabludowicz Collection, London in 2018.