ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how objects contribute to recovery-engaged performances to reveal the multifaceted assemblages of lived experiences of addiction and recovery. Specifically, it observes how objects perform to assist in the telling of stories of addiction and recovery. The discussion draws on two different examples of practice created with and by people with experience of recovery from addiction. First, reflection on the devising process and performance of Simon Mason’s 2013 biography, Too High Too Far Too Soon, illustrates how objects operated as dramaturgical tools. Selected ‘props’ not only provided the narrative structure, but also assisted in revealing the ‘affective economies’ (Ahmed 2014) that circulate among society and confine people affected by addiction to unhelpful stereotypes. Second, Portraits of Recovery’s participatory art project, the Repair Centre, is drawn upon to demonstrate how imperfect objects repaired through creative activities inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi can evoke a revaluation of what it means to ‘become well’ (Duff 2016).
