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The Art of Falling Apart

Travel is a big part of my life and teaches me a great deal. I am always happy to meet spiritual people around the world pursuing their passions and a recent trip to Kyoto, Japan, was a deeply enriching experience.

I spent time in the studio of my good friend Kristina Mar where I learnt about
ceramic art history, culture and techniques. Kristina introduced me to ‘Kintsugi’ culture, defined as “to repair with gold”, it is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. It celebrates the process of life and takes it to a new level, rather than throwing it out.

Nowadays people discard things with ease and everything is fast and replaceable, but this Zen practice seeks to move things in the opposite direction, not only honouring the artwork, but elevating it by adding another layer of time, attention, love and respect.

We all have the capacity to fix something broken into a beautiful piece of art, in turn not only do we get to enjoy the process of breathing life into a fragmented object, but we also enrich the story of our own lives.

於日本京都旅遊期間,探望朋友-陶瓷藝術家Kristina Mar ,她把工作室裡每一個作品的創作過程都興奮的跟我講解,分享製作陶瓷的過程和樂趣,還分享了很多京都「襌」的高尚情操以及他們的飲食文化。讓我最深刻的是她跟我介紹京都的「金缮Kintsugi」日本傳承古代的金漆陶瓷修補技藝, 將破碎器皿粘和後在接縫處小心用金粉進行繪畫,使器物重生成件件獨有韻味的新作品。

把東西修補其實是我們現代人在繁華社會裡都忘記的事情。「金缮Kintsugi」讓我領悟到,把心愛的東西用力維護,把接縫用心讓它變成美麗的東西,將不完美變美,用「心」將一件本來要丟掉的東西變成最珍惜的寶物,在享受「修補」,親手創造一件美麗寶物的同時,也編寫了一個美麗的故事情節。

Date: 2016-05-28 11:09 am