KAWAII DRUGS – Art, Trauma & Healing from a Feminist Perspective
KAWAII DRUGS is an interdisciplinary art project exploring the connections between emotional trauma, chronic illness, and the medicalization of life in Western societies. Drawing from my own experience with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other diagnoses that somatized into chronic physical illness, I embark on a journey of self-discovery through alternative therapies and traditional medicine—questioning the role of the pharmaceutical industry in treating symptoms that often have emotional roots.
My body, saturated with pills, creams, and eye drops, inspired me to create a contemporary still life: a visual representation of our dependence on legal drugs. I began to ask myself: What would it mean to inhabit my body without this pharmacopoeia? Are there other ways to heal that truly integrate the body, mind, and emotion?
More than 78% of people diagnosed with autoimmune diseases are women—a statistic that genetics alone cannot explain. This project also engages with a feminist reflection on how women are taught to repress emotions, desires, and needs in order to care for others. That emotional disconnection comes at a price: somatization.
KAWAII DRUGS is not just visual or performance art—it is a lived investigation of the body, mental health, and the power of expressing repressed pain. Because if we don’t listen to the body, it will scream until it is heard.
Disclaimer: Generative Adobe Illustrator AI has been used in this artwork.
