Dawn-Marie Farmer / DeeFyne Design
Dawn-Marie Farmer is a neurodivergent artist and designer whose practice explores value, perception and transformation. Her ADHD diagnosis became a catalyst for questioning the assumptions that shape how value is assigned, both to people and materials. She is drawn to things that have already lived a life: objects and materials that are broken, overlooked or dismissed once they are no longer considered useful.
Through collecting, dismantling and remaking, Dawn-Marie repositions these materials so they can be encountered differently. Her work often invites people to respond first to form or beauty before discovering what the material once was. That shift in perception sits at the heart of her practice.
Rather than “fixing” what has been discarded, she is interested in revealing possibilities that were always there but went unnoticed, asking what might change if we paid closer attention before deciding something, or someone, has reached the end of its worth.
The Prozac Lamp explores value, disposability and the unintended waste created through caring for ourselves. Made from empty Prozac blister packs, waste paper and cardboard pulp, the work transforms the discarded by-products of medication into a functional light source.
The piece began with a simple contradiction: medication intended to support mental health can also create a stream of packaging that is immediately thrown away. That waste can carry its own discomfort and guilt, particularly within a culture increasingly conscious of what we consume and discard.
By allowing light to pass through the empty blister packs, the packaging is given a second role. What once contained something intended to help someone through a dark period now quite literally illuminates one.
There is an element of dark humour in that transformation. The work plays with the idea of “coming out of a dark place”, while asking whether something dismissed as waste might still have value, purpose or the ability to support us in another form.
