NYAB Event - "Heroin Stamp Project" Exhibition

"Heroin Stamp Project" Exhibition

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The Social Art Collective is proud to present Heroin Stamp Project, an exhibition focusing on the branding of heroin in New York City. At once beautiful and unsettling, the images in the exhibit illustrate a complex narrative around public health and preventable consequences of injection drug use.

In the New York City drug trade, as in many enterprises, marketing and branding are key. Dealers distribute individual hits of heroin in glassine (a durable, translucent paper) packets, which are stamped with eye-catching insignia made up of colorful words and images. As individual branding agents, each stamp carries multiple layers of connotation. The designs tend to glorify the high ("Monster Power"), address the mortality of addiction ("Last Shot"), or draw upon pop culture references for notoriety ("Obama"). For decades, these stamps have inspired underground brand loyalties that walk a thin line between the ultimate high and the last high; signaling a drugʼs potency, the most popular stamps often contain hits that trigger overdoses.

Collected from New York City streets over the course of the past five years, Heroin Stamp Project will present over 100 distinct stamped heroin packets. The exhibition is comprised of large-scale prints depicting these seductive, yet sinister symbols in startling detail. Blown up to monumental proportions, these images become confrontational, insinuating the complex nature of drug use, from the market dynamics of suppliers and dealers, to the motivation and histories behind individual users. The gritty, torn glassine edge presented in each sharply rendered image imparts a visual trace of the drugʼs consumption. Each stampʼs graphic is nuanced by the confluence of highly charged words that accompany imagery or symbols assimilated from the domain of the everyday. "Game Over" borrows from the realm of the electronic videogame; "LIFE" appropriates the visual language of mainstream magazines; and "Notorious" nods to popular music. By juxtaposing the culturally familiar with the socially taboo, these loaded images trigger questions about the public policies and stigma that shape addiction and disease. Nearly 2,000 stamps arranged to represent one userʼs yearly consumption will chart a visual map of addiction on the gallery walls.

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