Highs and lows of being a drug user
BMJ 2024; 386 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1975 (Published 11 September 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;386:q1975
Martina Hoffmann
From alcohol and caffeine to heroin and ayahuasca, art has for centuries been used around the world to explore the world of drug cultures. Now the University of East Anglia’s Sainsbury Centre is displaying many examples of this art, including this work, Robert Venosa’s Ayahuasca Dream (1994), in a six month season of exhibitions entitled “Why Do We Take Drugs?”
The five individual series, entitled Power Plants: Intoxicants, Stimulants and Narcotics; Ayahuasca and Art of the Amazon; Heroin Falls; Lindsey Mendick: Hot Mess; and Ivan Morison: Towards the Weird Heart of Things, explore the organised and chaotic use of narcotics and intoxicants in different parts of the world.
Footnotes
For more information see https://www.sainsburycentre.ac.uk/whats-on/why-do-we-take-drugs