The Sunny State for Shady Characters Anna McDermott with Paul Hogarty [TW: death, addiction] The Sunny State for Shady Characters complicates notions of dirtiness and cleanliness, consumption and abstinence, through a quasi-memorial to Paul Hogarty (1960 - 2019). Paul was Anna’s uncle—an artist, musician, and addict—who died alone in his St Kilda apartment in April 2019 with drugs found in his system. Anna quit drinking eighteen months later. Grounded in her personal experience of recovery, The Sunny State for Shady Characters recontextualises Paul’s archives to contemplate and subvert tropes associated with the failed-artist, successful-addict paradigm, and vice versa. The dual meaning of the word ‘grit’ or ‘gritty’ is important: 1) dirt; abrasive in character; 2) courage, determination; an exerted effort. Whilst possessing the latter definition may be applauded, the former directs one towards a societal fringe or edge(iness). Failure, shame, desire and will are examined through an unburying of inked soliloquies, foreplay with a dirty martini, and an encore from 80s punk band, Roaring Mungrel.