Science Gallery London presents ‘Hooked’ examining pressing issues surrounding addiction and recovery

The new Science Gallery London at King’s College’s Guy’s campus will open its doors this month with Hooked, a thought-provoking season examining pressing issues surrounding addiction and recovery.

The provocative new season invites visitors to explore the cyclical processes of addiction and recovery, questioning how society feeds and sustains both.

From September 21, Hooked will examine addiction as a fundamental risk of being a modern human amidst the backdrop of the criminalisation of drugs, and the addictive nature of new technology and social media.

With humans vulnerable to addiction across all walks of life – drugs, gambling, sex and even smartphones – the season questions whether we need to reshape our society to address it.

Leading voices on the science of addiction from King’s College London, including researchers from the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (IoPPN), are interwoven into the video installations, interactive artworks and immersive experiences featured within Hooked.

Visitors are asked to challenge the stigmas associated with addiction, consider addiction as a health issue we are all susceptible to, and explore how recovery takes many forms.

Developed in association with people who have a lived experience of addiction, Hooked features established and up-and-coming artists and photographers from across the globe, including Rachel Maclean’s Feed Me, photographs from Olivia Locher’s Another Day on Earth series, Richard Billingham’s Tony Smoking Backwards, Playstation and Jason Chopping, Melanie Manchot’s Twelve and Joachim Koester’s The Hashish Club.

Jen Wong, head of programming, said: “Addiction and recovery is a pressing issue that affects us all.

Hooked explores this in an inclusive and socially engaged way, by weaving insights from art and science into a season that invites visitors to connect with provocative new ideas and consider their own attitudes towards addiction and addictive behaviours.”

Hannah Redler-Hawes, curator producer of Hooked, said: “We must challenge long-held beliefs and stereotypes to consider what addiction is and how it affects us all.

“Working with Science Gallery London to bring academic researchers and young people together to probe contemporary culture and social structures has been an amazing journey.

“This season casts a critical eye over the much-talked-about and complex topic of addiction and I hope visitors will find the topic as surprising and as rich an area for debate as I have.”