04/09/2026
‘Prick’
This painting is part of my ongoing graphic medicine work with the Centre for Digital Healthcare in Ulster University. For a recent mini conference I was asked to focus on the addiction crisis in Belfast, and hopefully make the health research leads creating solutions to healthcare inequalities understand the realities of those often forgotten and pushed to the shadows in our streets, beyond the statistics and reports.
I’m in a slightly unusual position as my art studio sits directly beside a homeless shelter and an area regularly used for injecting.
Every morning, I see people outside on their phones, trying to organise their day’s fix. I see groups move through the area and set up in the corner of what is essentially a wasteland to inject. Throughout the day, I see them nodding off, arguing, fighting and laughing.
Over a period of just two weeks, I found and photographed more than 30 discarded needles, all easily visible, and some that I often have to dodge to get into the comfort of my car after a long day in work.
This work is deliberately observational and uncomfortable, particularly to those who are used to sitting in fancy, sterile labs.
I’m not trying to romanticise addiction, and I’m certainly not claiming to understand the experiences of the people I’m depicting.
Instead, I’m trying to say: look.
Look at what is happening in our city.
Look at what we have gradually learned to walk past.
Look at the needles on the ground.
But then look beyond the needle.
Because behind every one of those needles is a person. There is a life, a family, a history and a set of circumstances that I know nothing about.
And somewhere within that are much bigger questions about trauma, poverty, housing, mental health, healthcare and inequality. And that definitely matters.
