Art and Science Join to Rethink Addiction

Text by Rick McVicar  

     The art of recovery from addiction will be on full display this spring in Atlanta when an interactive exhibit opens with a blending of art and science.   

  The exhibit, “Hooked: When Want Becomes Need,” is being offered by the Science Gallery Atlanta, a project of Emory University, according to the Atlanta gallery’s website. Emory’s gallery is part of a network linking together eight major universities throughout the world.  

  One of the curators of the exhibit, Floyd Hall, said the exhibit is meant to evoke new ways of imagining addiction, recovery and the science of brain health.   

  “With ‘Hook’ I want to challenge what we know or accept about addiction and the human experience,” Hall said in an interview found on the gallery site.   

  The website states that the purpose of the exhibit is to examine “addiction as a fundamental risk of being human.”   The artwork to be shown will depict the science behind addiction and recovery from several perspectives, such as social, clinical and personal. 

  Several types of addiction will be addressed, such as substance abuse, gambling, food, sex and social media.   Artists from King’s College in London will be featured along with those from Emory University, the website states.

  The Champion, a local newspaper serving DeKalb County, Georgia, notes that the Atlanta gallery is located in Pullman Yards, a former industrial complex transformed into an innovative cultural center. Emory’s facility is described in “Art and Science Exhibit Coming to Pullman Yards,” by Kathy Mitchell, Jan. 10, 2022.   

  According to the gallery site, Hall will curate the exhibit along with Hannah Redler Hawes. Participating members of Science Gallery can also be found in Detroit, London, Dublin, Melbourne, Venice, Berlin and Bengaluru, India. In Detroit, the gallery is sponsored by Michigan State University.   

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