one-to-one performance, and exhibition of video documentation and photos of kinstugi’d* objects.
Performed at Tiding; Romney Marsh, UK. Exhibited at Grey Projects; Singapore. 2022
The past two years have left us collectively shattered. We don’t stay broken, however, and as we put ourselves back together, this piece proposes that we wear each of our distinct scars as a mark of beauty in the face of a chaotic universe.
In April 2022, I invited members of the public to bring me fragments of their cherished objects, and to engage in a live one-to-one performance.
Then, over the next months, I resurrected these items using kintsugi.
Stanford research scientist Amy Price has described the practice of kintsugi as “radical empathy in action” (2021), representing resilience and the regaining of function with new splendour.
Each restored object was then returned to their owners.
A video documentation of the performance and repair, as well as photographs of kinstugi’d objects were exhibited at Grey Projects, Singapore.
*Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the breakage with lacquer dusted with precious metals.