A Bilboquet or Kendama is a dexterity toy consisting in a wooden handle to which a small ball is attached by a string. The player should throw the ball in the air and catch it with the spike. The work ‘Bilboquet’ is made of a gips and antidepressant medication. It functions as a visual pun, materializing the colloquial French expression “perdre la boule”. Literally “to lose one’s ball” the expression translates into “to lose one’s mind”. Bilboquet displays an ambivalent attitude towards antidepressant treatments. On the one hand, they alleviate the weight of an unbearable psychic pain, and help with therapy, nutrition, sleep, social contact, which are essential elements of a long-term recovery. On the other hand, they are the sign of one’s profound fragility, and a sometimes painful reminder of one’s helplessness and dependency.
gips and antidepressants Bilboquet gips and antidepressants Bilboquet