I attended the opening of an art exhibition recently where different textile artists chose a piece of poetry as an inspiration for an art work.
I was particularly taken by the MJ Chatterton’s poem “Kintsugi”. (MJ publishes poems on TWITTER.)
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery. The areas of breakage are mended with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum often adding considerably to the value the item with these beautiful imperfections.
With knee replacement surgery in less than 24 hours, I’m holding onto any sort of positivity to quell fear.
This philosophy of treating breakage and repair as part of an object’s history, rather than a disguise particularly fascinated me.
So just as repairing broken ceramics can give a new lease of life to pottery, hopefully the removals and additions and scars of TKR will give me an improved new life.
