wisdom to know the difference 

Wisdom to Know the Difference explores the subtle effects of alcohol abuse, which can disrupt social networks, rippling across family, friends, colleagues, and others. Widespread social acceptance masks the debilitating physical effects and loneliness often associated with alcohol abuse. Wisdom to Know the Difference examines the often hidden or discarded evidence of excess and lack of control, and raises questions about how we identify these issues.

The visual and olfactory archive includes: twelve concrete cast wine bottles, fifty-two cocktail napkins, and seven wine ‘paintings’. They document increasing excess, as well as the stress of managing the problem—of keeping up appearances. 

Each half wine bottle has either a smooth or marked surface, representative of the outward appearance versus the inward reality of problem drinking. The bottles are arranged in a line across the gallery floor, negotiating control and loss of control.

The wine paintings and the cocktail napkins function as trace objects that might remain after nights of drinking— while one napkin or spill might not be indicative of a problem, the assembled mass, arranged in the gallery, point to a larger issue.