Powerful new exhibition disrupts narratives on Substance Use and Recovery

A special collaborative exhibition between celebrated designer Joe Hartley and the ANEW recovery community comes to Castlefield Gallery this summer.

ANEW Way to Peel an Orange is an ambitious collection of co-produced work developed during Hartley’s five-month residency with ANEW in Tameside (Greater Manchester, UK).

Hartley’s residency has combined the forces of ANEW’s experienced and creative approach to recovery from substance use, with the artist’s diverse approach to making and the variety of talents possessed by members of the ANEW community.

The residency has been an evolving journey of creating and reflecting through ceramics and furniture making, photographic experimentation, as well as outdoor and growing activities that include equine-assisted therapy and even the hatching of RECOVERIST chickens as a nurturing metaphor for new life beginnings.

The resulting exhibition will unite a dynamic collection of artworks that range from large-scale black-and-white photographs to ceramics and site-specific interventions that harness the techniques, energy, and immediacy of graffiti.

Commissioned works are informed by lived experience and underpinned by the critical importance of recovery as a collective process. The presentation itself is to be co-produced with Hartley and ANEW, including the display stands, exhibition furniture, and framing.

Castlefield Gallery will also play host to Hartley and ANEW’s pop-up shop, a space it says will give off the warmth of a rustic farm shop. The shop will house teapots and ceramics enhanced with glazes produced from plants, those often viewed as invasive and not welcome, that, when repurposed yield positive, unexpected results.

Interventions will also appear outside the gallery. Hartley and the ANEW community will bring their collaboratively honed growing skills to the venue by developing a garden at the gallery’s entrance occupied by plants that include those used to produce glazes found on the ceramics inside.

The title of the exhibition is associated with the phrase ‘Peeling an orange in your pocket’ – a saying that can have multiple meanings, including alluding to secrecy, but more relevant here is the idea of layers and hidden talents, as well as peeling an orange for someone being an act of love and devotion.

The exhibition seeks to question: ‘Is there not more than one way of looking at things?’ Shaped by lived experience, underpinned by the importance of process to journeys of recovery for personal growth and healing, the exhibition will seek to prompt and invite conversation over proposing definitive answers.

Speaking about the exhibition, the ANEW recovery community says: “We are learning that art and recovery can dovetail together to create a relational experience that offers authentic connections, builds trust, and helps us to see each other’s joy and creativity one teapot at a time.”

“ANEW Way to Peel an Orange is about creating a culture of encouragement.” Joe Hartley added.

ANEW Way to Peel an Orange forms part of the pioneering 3-year commissioning programme CHAORDIC, initiated and led by Portraits of Recovery, developed and delivered in partnership with Castlefield Gallery, the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery.

CHAORDIC explores the social impact that collaborative contemporary visual arts can play in redefining substance use narratives and recovery identities. The CHAORDIC National Symposium and ANEW Way to Peel an Orange are key events for Portraits of Recovery’s RECOVERIST Month (September 2025) – placing lived experience at the heart of an annual, month-long arts programme.

ANEW Way to Peel an Orange will run at Castlefield Gallery from Sun 3 Aug – Sun 19 Oct. A special exhibition preview will take place on Thu 31 Jul, followed by a Slow Saturday preview on sat 2 Aug. For more information, click here.