10) REPAIR/ HEALING -The Value of Repair
The Object
This wearable sculpture contains a fragment of Delft ceramic embedded in a white mineral structure.
The blue ceramic shard is visibly broken and reconnected by a thin line of gold that runs across the surface. The fracture cuts through the fragment and continues through the surrounding material, creating a vertical trace that holds the composition together.
The gold does not conceal the damage. Instead, it marks the break and stabilizes it.
The object resembles a small sculptural landscape: a fragment of historical ornament held inside a contemporary mineral form. Rather than presenting a flawless ornament, the ring preserves the moment where something broken has been carefully held together again.
As a wearable sculpture, the work transforms repair into something that can be carried on the body.
Material
The sculpture combines three distinct materials: Delft ceramic, mineral matter, and gold.
The ceramic fragment carries the visual language of historical decoration — the recognizable blue patterns associated with Dutch porcelain traditions. The surrounding white mineral structure acts as a stabilizing field that holds the fragment in place.
A thin golden line follows the fracture. Instead of masking the break, the gold traces its path and transforms the fracture into a structural element.
Each material remains visibly different. The repair becomes part of the object’s architecture.
Core Idea
For centuries gold functioned as a symbol of wealth, permanence, and authority. Precious metals were used to display power and social hierarchy.
Post-Colonial Gold proposes another system of value.
Instead of material wealth, the series explores values that emerge from human actions — attention, care, memory, and repair.
Within this work, gold no longer represents domination or accumulation. It marks an act of reconstruction.
Meaning
The fracture in the ceramic fragment becomes the central element of the sculpture.
Rather than restoring the object to its original state, the repair acknowledges the break and transforms it into a visible gesture. The gold line records the moment where the fragment was held together again.
The object suggests that value may not lie in perfection, but in the act of caring for what has been damaged.
Repair becomes a form of meaning.
In Dialogue with Yoko Ono
Throughout her career Yoko Ono has explored simple gestures that carry emotional and symbolic weight.
Many of her works focus on acts of repair, reconstruction, and collective care.
In her work Mend Piece (1966), visitors are invited to repair broken cups. The fragments are patiently reassembled, creating objects that carry the visible history of their breakage.
This sculpture resonates with that approach. The repaired ceramic fragment becomes a quiet record of an action — a moment where something fragile has been preserved rather than discarded.
The object echoes Ono’s idea that repair itself can be meaningful.
Within Post-Colonial Gold
Post-Colonial Gold proposes an alternative system of value in which material wealth no longer defines worth.
Across the series, attention shifts toward forms of meaning that emerge from human experience and cultural memory.
Within this system, the present work represents the value of repair — the recognition that broken things can carry new meaning when they are cared for rather than replaced.
Artist Reflection
This sculpture began with the simple gesture of holding a broken fragment together.
Instead of hiding the fracture, the work allows the repair to remain visible. The gold line follows the break like a quiet acknowledgement of what has happened.
The object does not return to its original state.
It becomes something else:
a record of attention.
