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Better Living Through Chemistry

These were a series of pictures made to look like advertisements or billboards. They mixed inspirational and motivational texts with stock images and pictures of drug paraphernalia. Originally done as lightboxes for a show at Mass MoCA, they also appeared at shows in Munich, Dallas, Trieste, and Milan. In Toronto and Belfast a few of them were done as billboards, which raised some eyebrows and got some laughs.

Click on any thumbnail for larger pictures.

Acid Trip, 1995
Hong Kong/Death Bong, 1995
Rainbow/Cobra Pipe, 1995
Installation view, MASS MoCA,
North Adams, MA, 1996
Installation view, Marino Alla
Scala Art Center, Milan,
Italy, 1999
Billboard Installation, A – Space
25th-Anniversary, Toronto,
1996
Billboard Installation, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1998
Billboard Installation, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1998
Installation view, Civico Museo Revotella, Trieste, Italy, 1998

EXHIBITION HISTORY:

• Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, January 29 - April 2, 2000 (Group)

• Better Living Through Chemistry, Lloyd Jerome Gallery, Glasglow, Scotland, May 8 - July 1, 1999 (Solo)

Your Action World, Marino alla Scala Art Center, Milan, Italy, April 13 - May 31, 1999 (Solo)

Sleepless Nights, Strange Ritual, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 12 - December 12, 1998 (Public)

• Glory! Sucess! Ecstasy!, Aktionforum Praterinsel, Munich, Germany, September 26 - November 15, 1998 (Solo)

• Better Living Through Chemistry, Billboard Project, A Belfast Festival at Queens and Ormeau Baths Gallery Project, Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 12 - 29, 1998 (Public)

• Stairway to Heaven, Art Futura, Madrid, Spain, October 14 - 19, 1997 (Solo)

• Desire, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX, March 7 - April 27, 1997 (Solo)

• Stairway to Heaven, Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL, December 6, 1996 - January 6, 1997 (Solo)

• Desire, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, July 26 - Octocber 20, 1996 (Solo)

Luminous Image, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY, November 16 1996 - January 18, 1997 (Group)

• Sweat, Exit Art, New York, NY, June 15 - July 20, 1996 (Group)

• Better Living Through Chemistry, Billboard Installation, A Space 25th-Anniversary, A Space, Toronto, Canada, September 4 - 29, 1996 (Public)

• Strange Ritual, Cristinerose Gallery, New York, NY, October 21 - November 22, 1995 (Solo)

• Strange Ritual, Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL, June 2 - 28, 1995 (Solo)

ABOUT:

"Byrne Outside: Talking with David Byrne", Public Art Review, Spring/Summer 1998

• DB Essay: "Stairway to Heaven & Better Living Through Chemistry", September 1996



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