Introduction

In Japan, when you glue a broken pot together, it is not just an inconvenience, but a chance to create something beautiful from the pieces. In this art form, called Kintsugi, you don’t use clear glue to reseal the pot, but instead mend the broken areas with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The pot then transforms into something different, but is still magnificent. When the research first began for this project, the word “fragmentation” continuously came to mind- an idea that is similar to Kintsugi. Fragmentation is defined as the process of breaking something down into smaller pieces, but it means so much more than that. Grief can often feel as if the person is broken into a million tiny fragments that can never be exactly the same. Many have mourned for the potential of who they could’ve been and what those fragments would have been if they’d stayed together hundreds of times, but this capstone has intends to help individuals make peace with that brokenness, and choose throughout this project to instead embrace the fragmentation and the grief one may have felt as simply the potential for a new person to be created. The final project, titled The Fragmentation of Grief is a set of two mixed media collages based on the artist's grief over loss of their original self; and specifically the two feelings of yearning and depression. Three dimensionality was used to create depth- which is representative of the profundity of grief, and mixed media such as colored pencil, magazine cutouts, photographs, and paint to represent the idea of fragmentation.

Literature Review

There have been many artists and creatives that have inspired this final project, including artist Maria Berrio. Maria Berrio is a collage artist who combines different elements such as paint and Japanese print paper to make fantastical collages based on myths from her home country of Colombia. Her whimsical interpretations of cultural stories and her method of combining elements of Latin America into one piece connects to the idea of Fragmentation that is explored in these collages. What draws the interest to collage is what she describes: the combination of many into one. 

In Japan, when you glue a broken pot together, it is not just an inconvenience, but a chance to create something beautiful from the pieces. In this art form, called Kintsugi (translated into English as “golden joinery-”), you don’t use clear glue to reseal the pot, but instead mend the broken areas with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The pot then transforms into something different, but is still magnificent. Bartlett discusses how the gold illuminates the imperfections instead of hiding them, and also notes the Japanese idea of mono no aware, defining it as “a compassionate sensitivity, or perhaps identification with, [things] outside oneself” (Bartlett). The idea of celebrating imperfections ties directly into this project’s thesis of embracing the person grief makes you- and painting it golden.

This project also includes a fair amount of research around the psychological term “disenfranchised grief” and societal expectations around it. Disenfranchised grief is used to describe forms of grief that may be considered unconventional in Western society, such as mourning your health after a car accident or mourning your childhood (Doka, Corr). Since this project deals with the concept of grief over original self before traumatic experiences, this term and other scholarly work on grief helped to inform the art pieces. 

Methods

This project will include multiple elements of media such as magazine cuttings, personal childhood photographs, colored pencil sketches, and paint. It also uses the method of layering to create depth within the piece- causing some of the pieces to pop out. A literature review was also conducted to help the artist better understand her own grief. 

Audience & Impact

While the final project is for everyone to see, the main audience member for this is the artist. It was created with the inention of helping to heal from and process some of the grief and anger the artist has around her childhood, trauma, and getting older. Although the artist's experiences are incredibly personal, she believes it is important to share them to challenge peoples’ ideas around what grief is as well as help others who may also be struggling. The project is intentionally subjective and vague about the artist's personal trauma in order to allow each viewer to take their own interpretations from it. The hope is that those who have not experienced disenfranchised grief will be able to gain a better understanding of the pain that comes with it, and that those who may not have a name for what they are feeling can get one step closer to healing. 

References

Doka, Kenneth. Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow. Lexington Books/D.C. Health and Com., 1989.

Bartlett, Christy. Flickwerk: The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics. Museum Für Lackkunst, 2008.

Aluna: Maria Berrio. LOVE ART + EXHIBITIONS, 9 Nov. 2019, https://loveartexhibitions.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/aluna-maria-berrio/ 

Corr, Charles. “Enhancing the Concept of Disenfranchised Grief.” Baywood Publishing Co., 1-17 (1998). 

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Harold and Heather for all their support and advising. I would most like to thank my fellow art scholars who gave me incredibly valuable advice on my capstone project and have been an amazing support system these past two years. Finally, I would like to thank my friend Ashley, who helped me glue down many collage pieces.