Medicine bundle for the non-born child 1993-94

Fiona Hall is one of Australia's most consistently inventive contemporary artists. Medicine bundle for the non-born child 1993–94 is an enchanting baby's layette made from recycled Coca-Cola cans.

Recalling patterns from popular Australian women's magazines, the tiny garments are knitted from strips of aluminium drink cans, and the layette comes complete with a six-pack of teated 'bottles'.

The work explores the history of cocoa leaves from South America and cola nuts from Africa — both important medicinal plants venerated in their original settings. Now Coca-Cola, which originally used both herbs, is revered as the world's favourite soft drink, and as a global marker of modernity. Interestingly, Coca-Cola is successfully used today as a spermicide in parts of the developing world.

Thus Fiona Hall's layette is constructed from an interweaving of different, even conflicting, narratives and histories about the desire for consumer goods.