Cover image of the review
Rex Veal, *Top*, 2020, antique cotton canvas life jacket, thermal printed tyvek label. Dimensions variable. Bossy's Gallery. Courtesy of Bossy's gallery. Photo: Jordan Halsall

Rex Veal, Summer 20/21
  • Audrey Schmidt


12 Dec 2020
5 Dec - 12 Dec 2020

Before flower power and hippies latched onto the Peace and Love mind-altering substance, LSD was tested as a neuro-medical-military weapon along with psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds. Psychedelics first grew out of the early twentieth century’s plunge into mass manipulation, with Nazi scientists among the first to explore its psychopharmaceutical potential, followed by international drug companies and ultimately the US government. Controversially, after World War II the US recruited former Nazi scientists to oversee LSD tests conducted by the CIA, such as MK-ULTRA and Operation Paperclip, with the intention of using it as a tool of counter-espionage and for the interrogation of Soviet spies.

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