For many artists, art acts as a kind of therapy. The process is medication; the finished product a cure.
For Minnesotan artist Erica Spitzer Rasmussen, it’s the other way around. The medication is the art. Or, more specifically, the prescription for the medication.
Dreaming of Sleep is the title of a nightgown crafted by Rasmussen, who specialising in creating handmade paper garments, utilising cotton, tissue paper, Thai unryu, and 2000 custom-printed copies of her sleeping pill prescription.
Talking to Spoonflower, the company responsible for printing the fabric, Rasmussen describes her inspiration for the work.
“I’m an insomniac,” she says. “About three years ago, after a particularly restless night, I finally fell asleep in the early morning hours. When I reached a few fleeting moments of sleep, I dreamt about sleeping peacefully. Shortly thereafter the alarm clock woke me and I wrote ‘dreaming of sleep’ on a pad of paper next to the bed.”
“Sadly, a satisfying night’s sleep for me generally requires medication. Dreaming of Sleep is a self-portrait that illustrates my dependence on those staples of the pharmaceutical industry.”
It’s not the first time Rasmussen has created such a radical design (you can check out others, such as Silent Harvest, which is made up by dried apricots, here), but it is perhaps her most blatantly personal.
“When I see tomato paste, dog hair, sausage casings, spent tea bags or dried fish skins, I envision a work that may be transitory in nature but rich in surfaces. I derive great joy from transforming everyday materials into something personal, meaningful and beautiful.”