Antonia Rolls
Artist Extraordinaire
Upcoming Events
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Past Events
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Upcoming Events
Addicts And Those Who Love Them
Behind every addict is someone traumatised by loving them
Portraits and words by Antonia Rolls
Brighton; 6th – 8th June 2023; 12-6pm
Fishing Quarter Gallery, 201 Kings Parade Arches, Brighton, BN1 1NB
Wandsworth Festival London; 13th – 17th June 2023
Wandsworth Town Library, 11 Garratt Lane, SW18 4AQ
Edinburgh Festival; 13th – 17th August 2023
Whitespace Gallery 76 East Crosscauseway, EH8 9HQ
All are welcome, entrance is free.
The exhibition is available for hire, for talks, conferences, events and stand-alone exhibitions. Please contact Antonia here.
Workshops, talks and discussions are available as part of the exhibition. All welcome.
“Thank you for a beautiful exhibition. The rawness and honesty was incredibly powerful. The people in this exhibition are strong, vulnerable and brave” From the 2021 exhibition.
There is addiction in my family, I am that person traumatised by loving an addict. I have had to reframe what love means. At first, I blamed myself because if I had loved right, my addict would not be in such a state. It is all your fault, I was told and I believed it, just as I believed, again and again, being told that it is all under control. I knew the threat to take an overdose to teach me a lesson was real and yet, this person is not always crazy, sometimes this person is calm and sad and sweet.
“Thank you for humanising addicts and giving them a voice. A really empathetic, moving exhibition.” From the 2021 exhibition.
This exhibition comes from long years of being in the madness alongside addiction and learning to survive. The exhibition has been shown in 2021 and 2022 as part of the Brighton Fringe and the feedback was so good that I am growing the project. I am creating more paintings and telling more stories, including those who are researching ways to help, those who are working for a change in drugs laws, and those who set up charities to help addicts and alcoholics.
Addicts And Those Who Love Them is powerful, raw and real. How is it possible to love people so destructive, manipulative and sick? And yet we do. But we have to learn to love in a way that does not destroy us. We have to learn detachment, and distance, and about what we are powerless over and what we are not. Behind every addict is someone traumatised by loving them. But together, telling our stories, listening and supporting each other, we are strong.
“These and more stories must be told – to move them all into the light – so many people are affected by addiction and art and stories tell this powerfully.” From the 2021 exhibition.
A Graceful Death
Portraits and words on the end of life.
AGD is showing for Dying Matters week at Brighton Library from Tuesday 2 to Monday 8 May 2023. Entrance is free.
The A Graceful Death exhibition is a whole experience. It will be emotional, challenging, uplifting, inspiring. There will be at least two dedicated Listeners on hand at all times if you would like to talk or if you need someone to sit with you. I remember the first time I exhibited these paintings, realising that so many of us have stories to tell about love and death, and nowhere to tell them. A Graceful Death exhibition is about what it means to die, to face our mortality, and to live our lives fully today.
Past Events
Addicts And Those Who Love Them
Behind every addict is someone traumatised by loving them
Portraits and words by Antonia Rolls, photography by Michael McAlister
Brighton Fringe Festival, Fishing Quarter Gallery, Kings Road Arches, Brighton, BN1 1NB
Tuesday 8th June – Sunday 13 June 2021
I love an addict, and I have had to reframe what love means. At first, I felt worthless, a failure, ashamed because if I had loved right, my addict would not be in such a state. I believed him when he said it is all my fault, I believed him when he said it is all under control and I believed him when he said he would overdose to teach me a lesson. And yet, he is not always crazy, sometimes he is calm and sad and sweet.
I thought I was alone. It took ages for me to realise I am just one of many who struggle, in silence and shame, alongside someone they love who is addicted. I saw how when we start to talk, to tell our stories, there is progress, support, tough love and compassion.
This exhibition comes from long years of being in the madness alongside an addict and learning to survive.
Addicts And Those Who Love Them is powerful, raw and real. Portraits of and words by both addicts and those like me, who love an addict. How is it possible to love someone so destructive, manipulative and sick? And yet we do. But we have to learn to love in a way that does not destroy us. We have to learn detachment, and distance, and about what we are powerless over and what we are not. Behind every addict is someone traumatised by loving them.
Michael McAlister is also exhibiting his series of photographs called “Small Signs”, small signs that describe his increasingly destructive dependence on alcohol and drugs until, after about thirty years, he finally and successfully became sober and clean.
The Brighter The Light
An exhibition of paintings and words on partying, drugs and addiction.
Working with my son, this exhibition shows what it is as a mother to see one of your children’s drug-taking and partying spiral out of control, ending in a devastating addiction to the opioid painkiller OxyContin. I watched my son, helplessly, as his addiction became increasingly chaotic, mad, destructive and dangerous. It is with astonishing courage and strength that he is now rebuilding his life, and after many years, he is no longer taking this dangerous drug.
The paintings are powerful, raw and show how powerless I felt, despite watching overdose after overdose, to do anything at all to stop this terrible thing happening to my son. I do not pull the punches either. I am in no doubt at all of the madness addiction brings to the family and to others who are affected, and the point of these paintings is to say, Look. This is what I saw, this is how it was. It is not pretty. And all the time, this is my son.
Coming Home Workshop
“Take back your power, take back your path, live your truth.”
How is it that we wander so far away from home, from ourselves? When we forget who we are, we feel disconnected without knowing why, aware of a sense of loss but knowing that there is more to us than this. Coming Home workshops last for the whole day, and include discussion, creative exploration and deep thinking to explore how we get lost, and how we become homesick for ourselves. This workshop is about life. Your life, and living your life. If you are coming back to yourself, who are you coming home to? Who do you believe you are?
“As we meander our way through life, most of us get so caught up in the chaos of living and the routine of our daily lives, we actually forget who we truly are, and in so doing forget our true potential. This workshop is empowering and relevant.”
The A Graceful Death Exhibition
Portraits and words on the end of life.
The A Graceful Death exhibition is a whole experience. It will be emotional, challenging, uplifting, inspiring. There will be at least two dedicated Listeners on hand at all times if you would like to talk or if you need someone to sit with you. I remember the first time I exhibited these paintings, realising that so many of us have stories to tell about love and death, and nowhere to tell them. A Graceful Death exhibition is about what it means to die, to face our mortality, and to live our lives fully today.
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