Self-Medication Can Put Your Life in Danger

A project-manifesto challenging the normalisation of suffering and self-blaming. Naturalistic, tactile depictions literalise metaphorical expressions, translating the pressure of relentless self-improvement into physical form.

It’s a fine-art photography project about the struggle to meet inner and outer expectations through self-discipline and pushing beyond one’s limits, ultimately leading to self-destruction. The title derives from a standard warning required by Ukrainian law in advertisements for medicines, cautioning against the potential harm of improper use.

This series follows a confused person looking for a way to pull themselves together. Unable to find another option but to blame themselves, the hero kneels on buckwheat — a common corporal punishment for children in USSR.

Trying to “separate the wheat from the chaff”—the inappropriate from the right, the worthless from the useful—the hero searches for something untouched by pain. Yet everything only buries itself deeper into the consciousness, becoming a conviction to push through: to endure suffering as evidence of one’s effort. This credo takes the form of an artificial frame meant to help the hero get a grip on themselves, but in the end, they simply lose touch with themselves and their ability to move freely.

The intimate space of a bathroom becomes a battlefield of inner struggle, stripped of its former sense of safety from external pressure. By the end of the series, we encounter the figure of the Other. Intimacy with them appears dangerous, but in reality it brings peace, represented by a bumblebee quietly resting near the eye.

The series emphasises that suffering cannot earn us recognition or improve our self-esteem. Naturalistic and tactile scenes are not intended to shock; instead, they aim to convey the physicality of an experience and discourage the practices shown in favour of seeking inner harmony.