May 28, 2004

Medicine cabinet portraits: "People really do subconsciously compose their medicine cabinets," says New York photographer Coke Wisdom O'Neal. "They make these beautiful little landscapes." The photographer has been surreptitiously looking into people's medicine cabinets for years and "I pretty much carry my camera everywhere I go." He works under difficult conditions when he visits: "I mean, how long is it okay to be in the bathroom? Maybe three minutes? Four at the most. That's not a lot of time." A short Q&A with O'Neal about the exhibition can be found here.
posted by livii 20 years ago
  • I am so not inviting "Coke Wisdom" (what's in a name? *snort*) over for dinner. This secretive yet obvious display of culture, ironically exemplifies health awareness and the misguided conformity to the social requirement for excessive good hygiene. This reads like a parody of critspeak. Actually, it's time for me to come clean. I, too, am a New York artist, and I have been surreptitiously photographing people's asscracks for the last year. My work thrives on an inquisitive arrogance and pure curiosity.
  • Traffic cones. I photograph them, number them, track them in the real world. Just wanted to get that off my chest.
  • coke wisdom...? is that some sort of contrivance or should this person's parents undergo a combo psych exam/bitch slap...? i totally neglect and abuse my medicine cabinet, if anyone ever took a photo of it i'd be mortified. in fact, this inspires me to do a little cabinet reno. it's a built in, so i'm thinking a fresh coat of paint and pretty shelf liner. and i should throw out about 3/4s of what's in it too... *adds trip to hardware store to list of saturday chores*
  • I'm a total minimalist, so I clean out stuff from my medicine cabinet once every month or two. I made my husband start taking vitamins not because I care about his health but because I wanted to get rid of the huge bottle in the cabinet. That said, my bathroom cabinet is still full because people keep buying me moisturisers and other such lotions as gifts. Maybe I am insane.
  • OK, this is TRULY worth a couple of bananas. (Seriously.) Sorry to dissipoint many of you, but I again have net access. Can't say how long, but that's life here in Saudi. :P
  • Merde! Disappoint...
  • Interesting to see how other people organize things -- never before occurred to me someone might keep vitamins in the bathroom, duh. Keep mine in a basket in the kitchen, handy for toting to the table/gulping with breakfast.
  • it's too damp to keep natural source vitamins in the bathroom...! i keep 'em in the kitchen too, in a wicker basket-tray. it's easy access for packing them with our work lunches that way.
  • Funnily, I don't have a cabinet in my bathroom. It's just a plain mirror with a one-level shelf beneath it. My mom and I balance all our stuff either on the sink edge or on the shelf. That said, my dad's toilet has a medicine cabinet, and last I peeped, it was packed. Men.
  • Mine's got q-tip cotton buds all over, hairs, flaky paint and pools of dried liquid, contents of various packets spilled around, hairbrush + hairties + tweezers and other crap all over. All of these are pristine, so far as I can tell. Not real. Can't be.
  • Ewwwww Nostril! Dried liquid, flaky paint, are the q-tips used?? Go to your room. Better yet, go clean up. I'm a clean bathroom fanatic. Trash can next to sink emptied daily. Small plastic drawers with teeth stuff--floss, paste, etc. in one drawer; hairbrushes, hairties, etc. in another; baby powder, oil, etc. in another. Pick 'em up off the counter and put them away when done, kiddies. Toothbrushes in holder; clothes in hamper. Towels may not match in color, but they better be hung up. Please keep your brassiere off the doorknob. The biggest pet peeve--when the little piece on the back of the toilet between the seat and the tank is grungy and gross. NO PEE BACKSPLASH! No fuzz, no hair, no dust. Shiny clean porcelain. The med-chest is a place to put the deodorant, moisturizer, aftershave--that's about it. Probably have one full shelf outta three. Vitamins in kitchen. Q-tips, cotton balls, make-up removal squares neatly in glass jars on cabinet. And it's functional, not cute. No pictures of kiddies in a tin washtub or ceramic ducks. OK. Maybe I'd like to have ONE ceramic duck.
  • Do you want one of those that hang their heads down, GramMa? Send me a snail mail address and I'll post you one!
  • Oh yea, the medicines/drugs are high on the shelf of the hallway closet in labeled plastic bins. Keeps the grandkids out, and the dang med chest is too small anyway for all the crap you wind up collecting at my age. Alnedra, You're such a sweetie to think of your GramMa? Are you serious? Do you do ceramics or collect duckies?
  • Just went back and re-read my original post--I sound like the bathroom clean nazi! OK, OK, I like a TIDY bathroom, as opposed to clean. I confess I hang the dirty Levis that I wear out with the horses on the back of the bathroom door, so there's often a hint of Corral #5 perfume, and the damn Kelpies ALWAYS leave wads of dog hair in the corners on the floor. (They like to keep people company while they're on the john.) They = people--dogs stay on floor. So come on in, Nostril. Feel free to take a dog in for company.
  • Nope, haven't done ceramics since I was 12. But I know a couple of shops around here that sell nice ceramic ducks (and other assorted animals that hang their heads over the edge). Have a habit of keeping an eye out for them cos one of my ex-boyfriend's sister likes collecting these. I might get her one too for Christmas this year. You interested? Give me an approximate size and color pattern, if you can. Or I'll make it a surprise :)
  • I think if I had a dog in the bathroom with me while I was on the john, I'd clamp up. Literally.
  • Traffic cones. I repost myself? Very well, I repost myself. Some people here probably weren't born when this page went up.