Look (at) inside me; Tramadol Drawing

I graduated in 1993 from the Minerva art School in Groningen. After graduation I became fascinated by science and by the world of multinationals. Since, I have developed and founded my own (art) multinational High Tech Brain Technologies (HTBT). In the name of this multinational I have created different works of art which are signed High Tech Brain Technologies (HTBT), -TV, -Pharma and -Lab. We are surrounded by technology and science. They are integrated in our daily lives to such a degree that we are hardly aware of it. The luxury of technology is all around us and does entail many advantages. But is there also a downside to it? Is it in our own interest? We are besieged by new technologies and products. Hope and dreams are being sold to us every day by big companies. This occurs especially in the medical and pharmaceutical field. They promise us eternal life and youth; available, accessible, affordable and qualitative medical care and medication. We are told that everything will be OK, that we'll receive the best possible care. However in reality our expectations are not met; health care does not evolve around the patient but around financial gain and time management. Today's society focuses mainly on the healthy and the strong. However many people suffer every day from chronic illness or pain. This influences their personal lives and often also affects their social- and working environment. Society places a stigma on weakness - chronic illness is a crucial aspect of this stigma. That is why many people choose not to talk about or to disguise their problems. In the world of arts we are talking a lot about the individual, but never about the experience of being ill or in pain. A few years ago I became ill myself. I was drawn into the world of health care, became part of a medical cycle of hospitalisation and long-term medication. I realised that being chronically ill influences my entire life: it changed my self-image and raised many questions. Many of these questions remained unanswered. It is important to open these issues up to discussion - in order to do that I have decided to make my own medical records public in spite of the consequences and stigma that could bring. I started collecting all my records and integrating them into different works of art. On one side these works view the issue from the perspective of multinationals on the other side they represent my own experience - they are more or less a self-portrait.