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| On the backboard that I stuck down the prescription medication to, I used empty tablet packets and some packets containing ibuprofen and paracetamol to add to the 'pharmaceutical' effect I was aiming for. |
This was the reflection that I submitted alongside my creative piece:
Following the experience of meeting a kidney transplant patient on a home visit, I was profoundly affected by their dependency on such a wide range of treatments and drugs. It made me question whether the independence of home care has any great distinction from treatment on a ward. Due to how overwhelmed I was by the number of medications required for this patient’s basic survival, I decided to explore and emphasise this by use of an assemblage art piece constructed from mixed media.
The patient I have based this piece on suffered from two polycystic kidneys, hence why she had a kidney transplant. After the encounter, I went home and researched exactly what a polycystic kidney was and a brief explanation to its causation. When I saw how the polycystic kidney can become filled with large infected cysts, I thought this would be a perfect condition to replicate using clay. I have previous experience with clay and seek enjoyment in portraying ideas in a 3D and visual form.
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| This is the final product. The clay piece was mounted onto the board and the 'No Nails' set, I added pieces of string to show the connecting vessels and tubes! The red represent arteries (especially the superior mesenteric artery and the renal arteries), the blue represent the veins (being the renal veins) and the white represents the ureters that connect the kidneys to the bladder. |
This three dimensional representation of how this ongoing treatment could be experienced by the patient, demonstrates how, even after the completion of a renal transplant surgery, the patient will never truly regain their independence from the medication. The patient did exclaim her dependence on the medication and did give an explanation to each of the tablets’ mechanism of action and its role in keeping her alive and preventing the rejection of the kidney. I couldn’t remember each tablet individually, so I found the NHS leaflet on renal transplantation which gave a run down of medication that is prescribed to a kidney transplant patient. I made the designs of the medicine boxes myself with a quick easy explanation on each of them (similar to how the patient described them to me).
In my piece, I have assembled the anatomy of the urinary system (including other abdominal organs). One thing that really stood out for me was the fact that they still keep both of the original polycystic kidneys in the patient’s body. I always assumed they were removed during the surgery, but I was told by my GP that they would only do this if the kidneys posted a further risk to the health of the individual (eg. It became cancerous). So, I wanted to educate the viewers of my piece that they do keep the kidneys within your body and that the transplanted kidney is placed into the iliac fossa.
Here are all the tablets I also made for the project, but didn't end up using!
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| Small tablets, pills and capsules that were created using clay. |
