What do you keep in your medicine cabinet? In the hands of British artist Lucy Sparrow, the answer is both playful and profound.

Using hand-stitched felt and an irreverent sense of humour, Sparrow’s work transforms familiar pharmaceutical items into soft sculptures - inviting us to reconsider the packaging, marketing, and cultural messaging surrounding over-the-counter remedies.

A brilliant example of this is His ‘n’ Hers, a pair of medicine cabinets featuring gendered felt products that comment on how medicine is marketed differently to men and women. Within these domestic dioramas, we see everything from paracetamol to “pink for her” vitamins, presented with an uncanny precision, yet made entirely from felt.

These pieces may look sweet and humorous at first glance, but their subject matter is loaded. Through the softness of her materials, Sparrow delivers sharp commentary on consumer culture, healthcare, gender norms, and the soothing (or deceptive) power of branding.

Felt vs. Formaldehyde: Damien Hirst and the Cabinet as a Canvas

While Sparrow’s cabinets are stitched with wit and irony, they also echo the legacy of one of Britain’s most provocative artists - Damien Hirst. His infamous medicine cabinets, lined with clinical shelves of pills and potions, offer a more sterile and solemn take on our obsession with health, healing and control.

Where Hirst confronts us with the cold aesthetics of science and mortality, Sparrow invites us to explore the same questions through the comforting and childlike medium of craft. Both artists, in very different ways, explore what our medicine says about our culture and what we choose to place our faith in.

 

Sinner (1988)

Hirst’s first cabinet was created in 1988, while studying at Goldsmith’s. Titled, Sinner. It was a touching tribute to his grandmother, who suffered from lung cancer, created from the medicines that were left over upon her death.

Hirst has continued to create medicine cabinets throughout his career, often presenting harmful goods like meds or cigarettes as objects of aesthetic contemplation. In the process, he encourages us to consider whether these items are a cure or a curse, poison or medicine?

Hirst’s installation, Pharmacy, was an early example of his obsession with the minimalist aesthetic employed by pharmaceutical companies. It also demonstrated his belief in the near-religious role medicine plays in our society.

 

Hirst continued his exploration of pharmacies and the drugs they dispense in his Spot Paintings – which have been named after everything from Valium and LSD, to chemicals created by pharmaceutical company, Sigma Aldrich.

View artworks by Damien Hirst.

 

Lucy Sparrow

Lucy Sparrow is known for recreating products, foods and even sex toys, all from felt and a needle and thread. Over the years, Sparrow has worked on a number of installations, recreating bodegas, sex shops, supermarkets, and even her own franchise of McDonalds.

Photo: Art Newspaper

In 2021, Sparrow transformed a Mayfair gallery into a fully stocked chemist, with every product handmade in felt. The enjoyable combination of installation and performance art saw Sparrow decked out in a white coat, offering her diagnoses, and serving customers everything from the morning after pill, to Viagra.

Sparrow's own fluffy interpretation of Hirst’s medicine cabinets in His N Hers  - a pair of bathroom cabinets containing the kinds of toiletries you might expect from a typical couple. As well as prescription meds, the cabinets also feature products like Tampax, Vaseline and condoms.

These particular cabinets are also notable for being examples of Lucy Sparrow’s earlier work, before she rocketed to international acclaim with immersive felt environments like The National Felt Service - a fully-stocked, life-sized felt chemist. The 2021 installation in London included 15,000 handmade products from shampoo to surgical masks, cemented Sparrow’s reputation as one of the most original artists working today.

Her meticulous attention to branding and everyday design all recreated in felt continues to resonate with collectors, art lovers, and critics alike.

A Rare Opportunity at this year's Art Yard Sale

Enter Gallery is offering a unique opportunity to own a piece of Lucy Sparrow’s early practice. For the first time, individual items from her His ‘n’ Hers felt medicine cabinets will be available to purchase at the Art Yard Sale in Brighton.

Whether you’re a long-time fan or a curious newcomer, this is a rare chance to collect a slice of British contemporary art history — and one that’s sure to become even more iconic as Sparrow’s career continues to soar.

📍 Sunday 1st June | Jubilee Square, Brighton
🕚 11am – 5pm
🎟️ Find out more and get your tickets here