For some time in the 1990s and early 2000s, pharmaceutical companies wooed doctors by offering all kinds of perks, including meals, vacations, and lots of "swag" - promotional objects distributed in doctor's offices marked with the branding of the drug in question. Everyday objects included pens, notepads, clocks, office supplies, and sometimes witty or odd objects (foam brains, sculptures, nightlights) that played off the function of that particular pharmaceutical. The practice was banned a few years ago, but I continue to work with these objects, which serve as visual representations of the drug and as blasts of color and branding design. Sometimes I present them as unaltered, other times as modified readymades.
The "Perfect Lovers" works are an homage to the Felix Gonzalez-Torres piece. Like the original Gonzalez-Torres work, the clocks are initially synchronized, but they often fall out of sync quickly due to their cheap quality. The Viagra clocks play off a time-based mode of sexuality - allowing the user to operate sexually for a period of time "on-demand". Viagra comes with the oft-mocked advertising warning of "an erection lasting longer than four hours, " requiring medical intervention. On the other hand, the Ambien clocks focus on the relationship of sleep and time; again, on-demand, to maximize our productivity. Some clocks are presented purely as readymades, others altered.