'Love is the most powerful emotion there is': Artist Opake on homelessness, addiction and Christmas

Every Christmas, Brits purchase hundreds of thousands of miles of wrapping paper. But why settle for snowflakes, bunches of holly and smiling Santas when you could package your gifts in a “fuck you” to poverty, addiction – and Einstein?

“It had to capture some sort of chaos,” Ed Worley – better known by his artist’s name Opake – told the Big Issue, describing the exclusive design he’s created for our annual wrapping paper collection.

“But I also didn’t want it to be so mental that people would be like, ‘Why the fuck do I want this as a piece of wrapping paper?’”

With a solo gallery exhibition and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to his name, Worley is one of the UK’s most exciting modern artists. But it’s been a long journey: he spent most of his 20s on-and-off the streets, addicted to crack cocaine and experiencing drug-induced psychosis.

“Christmas is a particularly grim time of year to be on the street, and if you’re addicted,” he says.

Worley has had a remarkable life. He attended a prestigious public school, but was ostracised on account of his working-class Essex upbringing. Despite “amazing” support from his parents, life “became chaotic”. By the time he graduated, he was an addict, spiralling into the criminal underworld of drug dealing and theft. He slept on friend’s sofas, in underground stations, doorways, and – on occasion – wheelie bins. He started experiencing psychosis.

This, he explains, is where Einstein comes in.

“Einstein’s theory of insanity is that it’s repeating the same action over and over again, but expecting a different outcome,” Worley says. “And to be blunt, as a homeless crackhead, I lived by that rule. Making the same mistake over and over again. You live in that Groundhog Day.”

Worley’s art is a repudiation of that cycle. He is known for his renderings of repeated cartoon characters, disintegrating or tumbling into each other. Sometimes, they’re recognisable only by colour scheme. In other works, dozens of Bugs Bunnies, Donald Ducks or Charlie Browns press in on each other.

There is method to the madness, he explains.

“With the art, it’s the same action, same image, over and over again, but creating a different outcome,” he says. “So it’s like a fuck you to Einstein, basically, to his theory and to my past and my drug psychosis. That’s kind of how I deal with it.”

For the Big Issue, Opake has created a series of Mickey Mouse faces tumbling into each other. Don’t worry: for all the radicalism of its message, he says, it’s also just a great bit of wrapping paper.

“I toned down that dark underbelly a bit. Maybe it’s a look of shock from Mickey Mouse! Like, ‘Oh wow, look at this amazing gift that my parents have bought me!’” he laughs.

“If you understand what the actual meaning is and the deeper meaning of it, then wicked it. But if you’re looking at it and you’re like, ‘I love Mickey Mouse!’, then that’s cool as well.”

It’s become a festive tradition for the Big Issue to team up with some of the country’s best contemporary artists to create exclusive, collectable Christmas art wrapping paper. This year, we’ve teamed up with eight talented artists – including Opake, Harry Hill and Hackney Dave – for our new wrapping paper collection, available to buy from the Big Issue Shop from today (7 November). 

Christmas is a particularly difficult time to be on the streets, Worley says, or to be experiencing addiction.

“It feels like everybody is happy and nobody is fucking seeing the degradation and the shit that I’m fucking stuck in,” the 36-year-old adds. “It can be the shittest time of year. So it’s like, let’s go all out, chaotic drug use and alcoholism.”

According to the homelessness charity Shelter, at least 309,000 people in England spent last Christmas homeless – including 140,000 children. This tally includes families in temporary accommodation, as well as rough sleepers. More than 3,000 people spent Christmas day freezing on the streets.

Christmas is very different for the Worley these days. He is raising a family with his partner Ruth and “hyperfocused” on his kids.

“I’ve got kids, young kids, so Christmas is cool because I just focus that. I just hyper focus on what they’re doing and how magical it is for them. I’m lucky, you know? I’m lucky in that sense, super, super privileged in that sense.”

Along with his art as Opake, Worley’s love for his partner – and his desire to be a good father for her son, who he is raising – are what “pulled him out” of the hole of addiction.

“[On the street], I felt so alone, and I’d totally given up on anybody loving me or me loving anybody else. Then we just kind of fell together, me and Ruth, and it was just the most magical thing to me. The idea of losing that – it meant more to me than going and getting fucked,” he says.

“I’m not saying be codependent, and you do need other help, but love is the most powerful emotion there is.”

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