“When I first started, I found that people can finally find a way to express themselves and outlets from where they least expect it,” she says.
The director of the Pathology Clinic of the Rethymnon Hospital found a clever idea of utilizing expired medicines Eleni Ioannidou: he creates paintings with the art of mosaic because as he says “nothing should be left to waste or considered useless”.
“When I first started, I found that people can finally find a way of expression and outlets from where they least expect it, which will give them value and results both in their lives and in the results of their work“, says Mrs. Ioannidou to APE – MPE, who although she had never before dealt with mosaics – apart from painting which she had as a hobby since childhood – in the midst of a pandemic, a simple observation of the quantities of expired pills at the Social Clinic of Rethymno inspired her to to create tables with a color palette, the colors of medicines.
“At the Rethymnon Community Clinic, in the pharmacy, trying to recycle the expired ones, we separated the packages from the pills, collected them separately for the special medicine recycling bins and they created a pile of colorful designs. In fact, we were telling each other to see how beautiful this colorful thing was that we saw in front of us. That’s how I got the idea. So I started creating boards of dimensions even 1.20 x 0.90. I took my time, always thinking that this craft of mine is even my therapy in drawing strength to then offer it to people, to my patients, to those in need of health assistance. It is true that through art there is healing. It is an undeniable reality and I personally found a new way to strengthen this reality, both on a personal and professional level“, says Mrs. Ioannidou.
He has calculated that a large table of meter dimensions, needs from 8,000 to more than 10,000 expired multi-colored pills. “The only color I have an issue with is black. There aren’t many black pills. Over 90% of the pills in my mosaics have no color treatment. But where I need the color black or some tones of black, there I intervene and color before I start using them. After all, I prefer the color of the pills, because it is more stable.”
“No matter how hard a doctor tries,” Mrs. Ioannidou continues, “with the exhausting hours, the often exhausting relationships with people and the various health incidents he faces, let’s not laugh, he takes a psychological toll. I found this way out, this other road that will offer him mainly mental rest and reinforcement, during the quarantine period. We had too much work and too much pressure. We had no way out after work. That was the period when I started working more on the specific projects and it was a way for me to express many things that were suffocating me, at that time. But at the same time a pleasant relaxation. It was relaxing my mind, it worked very psychotherapeutically and the result was something that suited me».
When asked about the subject matter in her works, she told APE-MPE: “It was drawn from my professional life, from my work as a doctor and then from issues that had to do with quarantine, with young people, with social solidarity . A little later, I communicated my works to the world, sending the message about vaccinations, about the mask, about organ donation, about the value of blood donation.”
Her works can be found in many parts of the city of Rethymno and beyond. They exist in pharmacies, in places where every citizen can stand and listen to a message, a reflection. Mrs. Ioannidou, speaking to APE-MPE, mentions that the process of searching for a way to preserve her works in the face of deterioration was tiring:The truth is, that no art conservator, any expert, knew how to help me since the pill is a material beyond the known and established. I finally managed to find a technical way to make my projects stand the test of time. One of the dominant materials I use for maintenance and preservation is liquid glass, with the result that my works that are five years old, have not shown any wear and tear to this day. I hope they will hold up over time. After all, I try to focus on small needs of my projects, such as, for example, the weight they will have. For this reason, I empty the pills that are in capsule form. To make the work even lighter. At the same time, I better use the parts of the capsule in the color needs of the painting. On the other hand, some pills are porous and therefore, many times I create an image and when the liquid glass or some other preservation ingredients are put in, I see before my eyes, the colors change, either with positive or negative results, certainly, however, with intense surprises».
As he would say on the outside, the pills have various coatings, inside “at their heart”, however, they have the power of healing: “This heart of medicine is a health surprise, it is a cure. With this logic one can also see the mosaic. That is, symbolically. It creates not only for me a cure while I create it. I do not hide that I am happy when I see a person in front of the mosaic absorbed, thinking. The dominant problem in my projects is how to preserve them over time. How do I also enhance it with details that a topic I want to present needs. Let’s not laugh though, when a mosaic is finished I realize the huge amount of medication it took. It is incredible and this reflects the polypharmacy that exists. Enormous use of drugs which at the same time, however, also creates a huge environmental and ecological issue. Consider that most of the drugs are not recycled in the right way. They end up through household waste in the environment, in aquifers, destroy the food chain and pose a threat. So, let one more thought be born from these particular paintings of expired pills about how we humans should always find ways to protect the environment».
Mrs. Ioannidou will say that the response to her hobby, to her mosaic art, as she defines it, is very positive:I find this not only from the messages I receive, but because in various places there are posted works of mine I find the time that a fellow human being devotes to mentally browse through the work from the expired pills of hospitals, pharmacies, citizens. Every person gets what they feel, what they need from a work of art».
She also says that she never thought about whether medicine or art suits her better: “For me medicine is always number one. It has never come second. The truth is, however, that lately there is a feeling of satisfaction for what I create with the expired pills, because I feel, more than with painting in the past, that the specific works add a lot to my inner world. Feelings and thoughts that I can communicate outwardly or share with my fellow human beings. This is also the reason why I usually give a painting as a gift to someone I see that they like very much. I feel a very intense charge when I see someone who really likes the painting standing in front of them. Then I go into the process of giving him a gift. I believe that the works should be in the spaces of those who connect with them, who converse strongly with the subjects. That is, to be in the space where the person who was tied to the painting for whatever reason is moving».
Young people are not missing from her thematics, who she believes are very far from the art that concerns the handmade, the expression with the hands: “This is due to the fact that young children are very influenced by technology, by the internet, by speed and by fast applications. However, what I can share with young people through my art and specific paintings is the reflection on some social issue, my messages and thoughts that I can capture in a mosaic. My issues have to do with young people. For example, I have created tables that deal with how much young people were blamed for their relationship with the rules related to the pandemic. They are the young children, who closed themselves inside their houses, in their rooms… The young people must be outside, fall in love, live. My nephew told me… “aunt I lost my years, they stole my years, my adolescence”. So I also have projects that deal with the reflection of young people, but from the perspective of an older person».
RES-EMP
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