When things break

April 7, 2024 9:28 AM

As art, as practical application, as metaphor, the delicate and profound craft of beautifully repairing beloved items resonates both aesthetically and emotionally. In a different sort of celebration and honoring of the broken thing, artist Helena Hafemann captures the moment of its would-be demise and spins it into a moment of beauty.

"Suspending the brief moment of destruction, the Wiesbaden, Germany-based artist stretches hundreds of strands of filigree thread between broken segments of plates. Perfectly coinciding with the porcelain hues from which they flow, bundles of delicate fibers bridge the jarring gaps between each ceramic morsel."

posted by taz (6 comments total)

This is indeed beautiful. The thread on Kintsugi long predates Lana Del Rey’s song of the same title, which references Leonard Cohen’s imagery of a crack in the world that lets the light in. There’s definitely a resurgence of mending in certain circles. So much mending needed in our world. Some days I feel like those broken plates, stretched out with string.
posted by rikschell at 9:42 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

Trying to salvage each fragment with glue felt as demoralizing as it was dismal

Julian Baumgartner disagrees
posted by flabdablet at 11:18 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]

The plates kinda look like the video card on the world has failed.
posted by surlyben at 5:42 PM on April 7 [2 favorites]

these are really cool, thanks for sharing!
posted by daisystomper at 6:50 PM on April 7

flabdablet thanks for posting that Baumgartner video, I really enjoyed it. Especially the part where he MAKES HIS OWN GLUE! and puts it into these nifty little tubes! So satisfying.
posted by Zumbador at 5:09 AM on April 8

Cool! Brought to mind some less-than-successful 3D prints of mine.
posted by Harald74 at 9:15 AM on April 8