Podcast Summary

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Episode: An Exhibit on Governor's Island Destigmatizes the Use of Medication (Mental Health Mondays)
Air Date: August 5, 2024

Episode Overview

In this Mental Health Monday segment, host Alison Stewart spotlights "Meditations on Medication: The Pill Bottle Project," a Governor’s Island art installation by Allison Vega in collaboration with Fountain House Gallery. The episode explores how repurposed pill bottles become a powerful medium for visualizing issues around mental health treatment, medication, stigma, personal identity, and sustainability. The discussion features artist Allison Vega and Rachel Weissman, Fountain House Gallery’s director, offering insights into the role of art in destigmatizing mental illness and supporting those who live with it.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Allison Vega’s Journey: Illness, Art, and Healing

• Background and Diagnosis
  Allison details her unexpected transition from a 22-year teaching career after a brain tumor led to surgery and lasting changes in her cognitive and emotional life.

  • Quote:

    “I was a Math teacher for 22 years, and then I had kind of a mini stroke, and they discovered that I had a blood vessel brain tumor, and I needed brain surgery. …I kept trying to teach for another two and a half years. …Eventually I realized I could not teach. …Eventually, I found Fountain House Gallery, and it turns out the things that I was making were art. And I found my home.”
    —Allison Vega [03:46]

• Art as Compulsion and Therapy
  Following her brain injury, Allison developed an intense compulsion to make things, initially collecting discarded objects, which organically evolved into artwork.

  • Quote:

    “I was literally picking up pieces of garbage from the street. …I kept seeing gloves. …I just had a compulsion to make things. I made dioramas. I found shoeboxes. I just put things in them.”
    —Allison Vega [06:09]

• Identity and Community
  Losing her teaching role meant losing a sense of identity — until she joined Fountain House, where having her art appreciated provided vital purpose and community.

  • Quote:

    “I lost my identity when I stopped being a teacher and becoming a member of Fountain House, being valued, having my art be, you know, validated, appreciated… It's given me a sense of purpose. I feel like I'm accepted, I'm included, I'm important, and I think that's what's been therapeutic about it for me.”
    —Allison Vega [15:49]

Fountain House Gallery: Resources and Advocacy

• Support for Artists with Mental Illness
  Rachel Weissman explains how Fountain House Gallery provides exhibition and studio space, materials, and professional connections for artists living with mental illness.

  • Quote:

    "We strive to provide… a litany of different resources and really meet our artists where they're at… with exhibition space, a gallery space on 9th Avenue… a studio space in Long Island City… so that individual artists can pursue their own practice with some elbow room."
    —Rachel Weissman [05:05]

• Advocacy through Art in Public Spaces
  The residency on Governor’s Island offers public engagement opportunities, helping to break stigma and broaden understanding.

  • Quote:

    "We really want to be ambassadors for Fountain House… help reduce or completely eliminate stigma around individuals living with serious mental illness. Governor's island is just another venue… to bring some of that advocacy."
    —Rachel Weissman [07:47]

The Pill Bottle Project: Art, Meaning, and Sustainability

• Genesis of the Project
  Allison’s realization about the sheer number of prescriptions she takes monthly, and the environmental impact of pill bottles, inspired the project.

  • Quote:

    "I take a total of six medicines a month. And I laid out all the empty pill bottles, and I was like, that is a lot. …I posted it on Instagram as a story… We all use so many of them… I realized they were not recyclable… what if we could see a whole bunch of them all at the same time?"
    —Allison Vega [09:11]

• Multiple Meanings of Medication and Material
  The project asks viewers to consider not only the role of medication in mental health, but also issues of waste and collective experience.

  • Quote:

    “There was one visitor who came in and sort of said, oh, like, every one of these bottles is a story. And I found that to just be such a succinct way to… name what it is.”
    —Rachel Weissman [11:23]

• Global and Environmental Reflections
  Conversations during the installation reveal how pill packaging varies globally, and highlight the need for environmental change.

  • Quote:

    “We’ve had doctors come through who say, ‘in our country, we don't even use these bottles. They use paper bags or blister packs…’ We need to do something in our country about this.”
    —Allison Vega [10:31]

Destigmatizing Medication

• Feelings Around Taking Medication
  The installation invites people to share their relationships with medication—positive, negative, and neutral—helping to open dialogue and reduce shame.
  • Quote:

    "It's like there shouldn't be shame around taking medication. You know, I take three medications a day. That's fine… That itself is kind of neutral. It's just maybe what your relationship is coming into that or coming off of that."
    —Rachel Weissman [12:29]

Artworks and Visitor Experience

• Creative Uses of Pill Bottles
  The installation features chandeliers, city skylines, labyrinths, wearable art, and musical instruments—all fashioned from pill bottles.

  • Quote:

    "Some of the sculptures have sort of emphasized the… volume of… the bottles. We have a kind of labyrinth on the upstairs floor that you can kind of walk through… lots of musical instruments… turned them into a lot of wearable art."
    —Rachel Weissman [14:05]

• Personal Touches and Community Engagement
  Allison was surprised by the social and collaborative aspects of leading the project, given her difficulties post-brain injury, and found the process encouraging.

  • Quote:

    "I was worried… with my brain injury… I don't interact very well with other people… It has surprised me, even though it hasn't always been successful, how well I've done at interacting with everyone… I feel fantastic."
    —Allison Vega [12:59]

Notable Listener Impact

• Visitor Feedback and Representation
  A donor of pill bottles likened life with chronic illness to playing chess against their own body, and felt visually seen by the corresponding chess set art, exemplifying the power of representation and empathy.

Important Timestamps

• [03:46] — Allison describes her brain tumor diagnosis, effects on her life, and discovery of art.
• [05:05] — Rachel outlines Fountain House’s support for artists.
• [09:11] — Allison explains the genesis of the pill bottle project.
• [10:31] — Reflection on the environmental implications of pill bottles.
• [11:23] — Rachel discusses the multiple meanings and stories behind every bottle.
• [12:29] — Discussion of destigmatizing medication and lived experience.
• [14:05] — Rachel shares examples of creative uses of pill bottles in the exhibit.
• [15:49] — Allison discusses how art and community through Fountain House restored her sense of purpose.

Memorable Quotes

• “I just had a compulsion to make things. I made dioramas. I found shoeboxes. I just put things in them.”
  —Allison Vega [06:09]

• "Every one of these bottles is a story."
  —Visitor relayed by Rachel Weissman [11:23]

• "There shouldn't be shame around taking medication. …I take three medications a day. That’s fine.”
  —Rachel Weissman [12:29]

Closing Reflection

This episode highlights the power of creative expression in reframing experiences of illness and medication, fostering advocacy, and building community. “Meditations on Medication” turns the everyday—discarded pill bottles—into collective testimony: about healing, stigma, environmental urgency, and the nuances of identity after illness.

Exhibit Information:
Meditations on Medication: The Pill Bottle Project remains on view at Governors Island, Noland Park 8B, through August 11, 2024.