With her OPIUM WORKS ( 1994 - '98 ) series, Barbara Broughel explored the history of the American opium trade with China and its exploitation of the East during the nineteenth century. Broughel's  sculptures of "typically" Chinese objects such as a poppy shaped umbrella, a Manchu court coat, an overscale opium pipe, a silk lined folding screen, a "head" counter and a china teaset evoke the longing for and fascination with objects imported from the exotic Orient.

       Opium Warehouse  Etching  (archive from British East India Company)

Courtesy Frederieke Taylor Gallery     //     www.frederieketaylorgallery.com