From Addiction to Art… and Winnie the Pooh
Bert and Ernie are sex addicts and the Cookie Monster attends Overeaters Anonymous in a provocative new art show based around addiction and recovery.
The Cookie Monster, The Count and Oscar the Grouch – or at least life-size sculptures of the Sesame Street favourites – are among the artworks featured in a new provocative and unsettling exhibition entitled Church Halls and Broken Biscuits, staged by recovered addicts-turned-artists DJ Fat Tony and Ed Worley this April at the Quantus Gallery in London’s East End.
Offering a tongue-in-cheek look at the different forms of addiction and recovery, and the ‘12 steps to recovery’ mindset and behaviours, the pair hope the exhibition will raise funds to help others overcome addiction and find their own paths to recovery.
Many of the pieces on show feature well-known children’s characters, including Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh portrayed in a different light, alongside a collection of ten illustrations inspired by classic children’s books, themed around recovery. One illustration features a child praying over a McDonald’s hamburger, highlighting how recovering addicts often turn to junk food for comfort and instant gratification. Elsewhere, Bert and Ernie are cast as former porn and sex addicts, while the Cookie Monster attends an Overeaters meeting.
DJ Fat Tony, aka Tony Marnoch, and Ed Worley, a graffiti and pop artist, who works under the name Opake, both have backgrounds of addiction and recovery. Fat Tony, a former club kid, hedonist, and queer pioneer, became an advocate for facing addiction following a rehab and therapy programme after an out-of-control cocaine binge in the early noughties, during which he pulled out all his own teeth with pliers while experiencing psychosis. Following 16 years of sobriety, the 56-year-old DJ is now a bestselling author and outspoken social influencer.
Worley’s addiction story began when he first tried alcohol at nine years old. By 16, he was taking cocaine, and later he became an alcoholic and crack addict, experiencing homelessness and violence from drug dealers, who threatened him with machetes and guns. Says Fat Tony, "I hated myself and life, and all I had to look forward to was death. This exhibition celebrates 16 years clean and sober and my love of life.” He adds, “If we can save one person’s life through this exhibition then it’s all worthwhile.”
The exhibition will also feature a specially created ‘hero’ piece of art, to be shared on social media, before being sold at a closed silent auction, with the money raised going towards treatment for a number of addicts at a UK rehabilitation centre.
The exhibition is free and open to the public from 27 April to 20 May.