“Art of repairing” – the theme of the project is focusing on repairing used items by employing new and unconventional medium.
For the Japanese, since ancient times it has been part of a broader philosophy of embracing the idea of respecting resources and their value – the virtue of not wasting. And Kintsugi, a pottery repair method, is the best example of this.
The broken pieces of porcelain get carefully picked up and glued back with Urushi lacquers sprinkled with luxuriant powdered gold (or other metals). These gold stitchings were seen as ‘scenery’ and Kintsugi became a popular Japanese art form.
For example, Kintsugi bowl “Seppou (snow peak)”, produced by Koetsu Honami who is an artist in the Edo period, was designated as an important cultural property in Japan and its artistic value is well known.
In an age that worships perfection and the new, the art of Kintsugi is not only about mending broken objects like new. The 400-year-old technique highlights the “scars” as a part of design to give more profound meanings to the objects and it teaches us the attitude towards life. I was definitely captivated by this concept.
In San Francisco, while I was watching artists who were enjoying surfing on their vintage surfboards, the inspiration for the project came – to merge the concept of Kintsugi and the surfboard repairs.
I hope you enjoy my works and they will be accepted as the antithesis to overconsumption.
Hopefully you are able to see the ‘scenery’ throughout these distinctive repairs.