The Opposite of Addiction

2017

Performance, choreographed movement, sculptural fashion artefacts

Project description

The Opposite of Addiction is a performance‑led project developed in collaboration with choreographer Lee Griffiths, commissioned by Sadler’s Wells Theatre and London College of Fashion as part of the Material Movement Gala. The work explores recovery, self‑division and transformation through choreographed movement and sculptural footwear forms, using the body as a site where repetition, desire and repair are negotiated.

Structured as a three‑part performance, the work unfolds through progressive states of confrontation, struggle and orientation. Two performers operate as mirrored aspects of a single subject, embodying internal conflict through synchronised and opposing movement. The performance does not propose resolution but treats recovery as an ongoing, embodied process shaped by discipline, focus and re‑direction.

Within the performance, sculptural footwear forms are not treated as props or scenographic supports, but as primary narrative carriers. Each object functions as an active agent through which meaning is generated, with movement, action and choreography evolving from the object’s material logic, constraints and demands.

In the opening section, a red, lunar‑like landscape is formed from conceptual performative shoe and foot objects. These forms operate as both aid and obstacle - familiar but inaccessible - suggesting the tension between habit and change. Circular shoes composed of two right feet are worn separately by each performer and can only function through coordinated action, requiring cooperation and shared control.

The second section stages the body as a site of polarity. Movement oscillates between attraction and repulsion, with performers functioning as opposing forces unable to fully connect. Here, repetition becomes both compulsion and method, exposing how disconnection is sustained physically as well as psychologically.

The final section introduces an upward‑pointing sculptural form -a missile‑like shoe structure that operates symbolically as ambition and orientation. The object suggests direction rather than arrival. Recovery is figured not as resolution, but as a continual act of alignment.

Alongside performance, the act of making operates as a form of sustained attention. Through repetitive and tactile processes, craft becomes a way of reorienting focus, transforming repetition from a cycle of compulsion into a structured, grounding practice. Material engagement functions as a quiet counterpoint to the intensity of performance, positioning making as a mode of care, discipline and embodied awareness.

Across the work, shoes function as mediating structures between body and ground - objects that carry constraint, desire and aspiration. The Opposite of Addiction positions performance as a means of testing how material form, repetition and collective movement can open space for agency within cycles of compulsion.