Drugs: self-portraits under "substances". Scandalous art project by American artist Brian Lewis Saunders
Drugs: self-portraits under "substances". Scandalous art project by American artist Brian Lewis Saunders

Video: Drugs: self-portraits under "substances". Scandalous art project by American artist Brian Lewis Saunders

Video: Drugs: self-portraits under
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Drugs, a series of self-portraits under the influence of drugs. (Left - cocaine, right - psilocybin mushrooms)
Drugs, a series of self-portraits under the influence of drugs. (Left - cocaine, right - psilocybin mushrooms)

American artist Bryan Lewis Saunders - a drug addict with experience. But he is not one of those marginals who engage in self-destruction for the sake of self-destruction - Saunders smokes, sniffs, swallows and injects himself with a variety of "substances" out of love for art. So, for 15 years he has been painting self-portraits, including during periods of "sticking out", and during this time he collected a gallery of several thousand self-portraits created under the influence of certain drugs. Art project " art addict"that's what it's called - Drugs … In his interviews, the artist says that this idea came to him after he experienced a very severe shock, and was forced to take first sedatives, and then potent drugs from the category of antidepressants. Noticing that the appropriate doses of different drugs make him feel uncomfortable, otherwise behave and think differently than usual, Saunders decided to derive such an unusual benefit from this state.

Self-portraits by Brian Lewis Saunders under the influence of different doses of Valium
Self-portraits by Brian Lewis Saunders under the influence of different doses of Valium
Self-portraits under the influence of nitrous oxide (left) and the same, plus Valium (right)
Self-portraits under the influence of nitrous oxide (left) and the same, plus Valium (right)
The artist under the cannabis (left) and marijuana (right)
The artist under the cannabis (left) and marijuana (right)
After inhaling lighter fluid (left) and breathing gas (right)
After inhaling lighter fluid (left) and breathing gas (right)

However, this was not Brian Lewis Saunders' first experience with drugs. In his youth, he already experimented with such "substances" as cannabis, and a couple of times he was even detained with a dose of cocaine in his pocket. But most of the drugs he has used in the past 15 years were new to him. Over time, some of them became favorites for the artist. In particular, a drug called Xanax turned him, a social phobia and a hermit, into a socially active person who could easily walk up to a stranger on the street and start a conversation with him. And the worst impressions were left by the hallucinogenic drug known as "Angel Dust" and the severe tranquilizer Seroquel.

Self-portraits under the influence of angel dust (left) and dilaudid (right)
Self-portraits under the influence of angel dust (left) and dilaudid (right)
Self-portraits under the influence of real absinthe (left) and after two bottles of cough medicine (right)
Self-portraits under the influence of real absinthe (left) and after two bottles of cough medicine (right)
Self-perception by consciousness altered by the action of methamphetamine (left) and morphine (right)
Self-perception by consciousness altered by the action of methamphetamine (left) and morphine (right)

Of course, such experiments on oneself could not but affect the artist's mental and physical health. He is confident, and not without reason, that he has suffered brain damage, not to mention problems with other internal organs. Therefore, today he takes only those drugs and in the dosage prescribed by the doctor, but the series of self-portraits "Drugs" continues as before. See the entire collection on Brian Lewis Saunders' website.

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