"Dokeis moi tës emës exodou to pharmakon hëurëkenai" - "But it seems you have found the drug to take me out"

 

A line from Plato's 'Phaedrus' inspires the concept of this work. in the dialogue, the aging Socrates employs the metaphor of a drug in referring to writing and the use of language while speaking to the young Phaedrus. Words are presented as means of seduction - like a drug they are both good and bad, both healing and poisoning. The idea behind this piece is to give form to that Pharmakon, which is full of contrasts, and to give it an essence – perfume, a means of seduction for the senses.

 

The Pharmakon bottle was designed for a collaboration-exhibition of LALIQUE & Bezalel. It is as a horizontal vessel (in contrast to the shape of a traditional bottle), engraved with the above excerpt from Plato's dialogue, and its shape resembles that of a pill; thus the drug is embodied. The lid is a deer's antlers – a wild animal living together with man, symbolizing gentleness and elegance on one hand, and power and strength on the other hand. The deer is also a cultural symbol in Israel. The bottom of the lid, visible upon opening the bottle, is in the shape of a wolf (Phaedrus means wolf in Greek) – a dangerous, strong, and wild animal thought of like an antithesis of human culture.

 

 

Materials: glass

Technique: glass mold-blowing, glass casting, sandblasting