Succorol® Patches, 200 mg

Artist Statement

I am exploring the story The Kontrabida from Mia Alvar's In the Country. In particular, my piece is a catalog poem, entitled "Succorol® Patches, 200 mg". The poem is a realistic recreation of a commercial drug label with ingredients, uses, and warnings outlined; I based it specifically on the commercial label for Ibuprofen. I was inspired to create this by the fact that I thought initially that Succorol was a real painkiller, like the other named medical substances in the story (e.g. doxorubicin being an actual chemotherapy drug); upon further research, however, I found that it was not.

Thus I inferred that the fictional name was chosen from the word "succour", which means to assist or give aid to, and that this was the symbolic meaning of the drug in the context of Steve and his mother's relationship with Steve's father. Thus, when writing out the fictionalised label, I attempted to catalog the effects of Succorol as a symbol for servitude and obedience in a relationship. I expanded these descriptions to include effects on both recipients and administrators of the patches, and attempted to encompass the stories of Steve, Loretta, and Esteban, respectively, within the label.

My vision was a subtle, bitter, and sardonic allusion to the inequitable and abusive nature of Succorol as a metaphor for servitude, what engenders its existence, and the struggles people face in its administration (e.g. Steve stealing from his job to secure it). I thought it was interesting to delicately explore its "side effects" (formulated as somewhat "real-sounding" medical terminology) both in immediacy and over time as the contrast between proclaimed love and forcefully exerted power create severe cognitive dissonance.

I intended for the distant, clinical, and prescriptive nature of the medical catalog to read as a dry and almost satirical yet still emotional discussion of the many layers of oppression, projection, and complexity that abusive relationships create within the psyches of every person involved. I also think Succorol's cultural particularities were interesting to allude to, especially the example of the typical kontrabida as a cultural icon and the subversion of the typical Philippine love story by Steve, his father, and his mother all at once. Finally, I enjoyed utilising the symbolism and implications of certain real medical symptoms as a way to add character to my narrative.

Overall, my poem (a "catalog of catalogs", due to the sets of several lists within the overall drug label) reads as an abstraction of the general theme of servitude through the metaphor of Succorol, and the complex dimensions of such.