Pharma

"Who benefits from our pain?" This is the question formulated by Ada Trillo—a prompt that reverberates throughout the entire series Pillhead, 2026. From a deeply personal perspective, the artist constructs a political framework that originates in trauma, yet extends toward the disparities in how health is understood and treated between East and West, power dynamics, systemic inequality, and human dignity. This photographic series documents the artist’s personal recovery process in Nepal. There, after decades of clinical treatment and medication, she initiated an alternative healing experience centered around Ayurvedic medicine, yoga, meditation, a specialized diet, massage, and other modalities of self-knowledge and care. This path allowed her to achieve well-being without depending on the prescription pharmaceuticals legally administered through her insurance provider—a reality vastly different from that experienced by individuals with limited financial resources. The paradox Trillo exposes lies in how the exact same substance can be legally administered by the healthcare system to those who can afford it, while those lacking resources are forced to obtain it on the black market, facing identical risks and adverse effects. Drawing from this lived experience, Trillo establishes a sharp contrast between Western and Eastern approaches to healthcare, questioning the corporate and economic interests that intersect systems of care and wellness.“Who benefits from our pain?” This is the question formulated by Ada Trillo—a prompt that reverberates throughout the entire series Pillhead, 2026. From a deeply personal perspective, the artist constructs a political framework that originates in trauma yet extends toward disparities in the ways health is understood and treated, power dynamics, systemic inequality, and human dignity. This photographic series documents the artist’s personal recovery process in Nepal. There, after decades of clinical treatment and medication, she initiated a process of care centered around Ayurvedic medicine, yoga, meditation, a specialized diet, massage, and other modalities of self-knowledge and well-being. Rather than presenting these practices as a universal solution, Trillo shares an experience that became meaningful to her and allowed her to explore ways of caring for herself beyond the prescription pharmaceuticals she had taken for decades. The paradox Trillo exposes lies, in part, in the different ways a substance can be understood and treated depending on the context in which it is used: as part of a legally prescribed medical treatment or, outside that framework, as an illicit substance associated with substance use and its risks. Drawing from her lived experience, Trillo questions the boundaries between treatment and dependency, as well as the economic and corporate interests that intersect with systems of healthcare and wellness.