Broken Repair Heal

A therapist once said, “I’m not broken - I’m healing. This is what healing looks like.”

It might be an issue of misperception or nuance, but the word ‘broken’ can be used to describe ‘healing.’ Not many things are in fact broken because they are doing and being exactly what they should. Beauty can be found in the cracks as seen in the art of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing pottery with gold lacquer. So in fact, ‘broken’ is ‘healing.’

This project, a photographic dialogue between two artists, is similar to the exquisite corpse method in which participants take turns augmenting a piece of art and passing it along to the next person in line.

The format proposed here will be that Artist 1 photographs the original image of something ‘broken’ and sends it to Artist 2. Next, Artist 2 will ‘fix’ it in whichever digital or analog method desired, then return to Artist 1. Finally, Artist 1 will make any additional adjustments to begin the ‘healing’ process, yielding the final image. 

Broken is found. A friend helps to Repair. The Healing process begins. 

The bond is strengthened.