The Japanese Art of Kintsugi

I have made a series of cyanotype artworks about the fractured habitats that birds and animals have to try and adapt to in order to survive – habitats that have been destroyed (wholly or partially) by mankind.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold coloured glue/clay/lacquer. The point is to highlight the breaks, not disguise them, in order to embrace the flawed or imperfect. It is built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections one can create something even stronger and beautiful. Sometimes in the process of repairing something that is broken one can create something that is more beautiful and resilient.

I am using gold metal leaf in these artworks in order to highlight the broken habitats that so many birds and animals have to live in – the gold is a message of hope – that there is still time for this destruction to be reversed and in some cases made even better than it was before.