KINTSUGI - REPAIRS

Social media can be blamed for a lot!

Social media can be blessed for a lot!

For every story of false news, there is the counterweight of uncovered justice.  For every feud fueled by misunderstanding, there is a love story re-ignited after years of isolation.  

But how to wade through it all?  The blast is unrelenting. 

In true “Two Faces of Facebook”  fashion, this week a friend lost a friend as a result of some political posts. She asked “how do I get back?”  Now there’s a question!  Get back to innocence? Get back to full acceptance of the other? Where is “back?” Should we stay in broken friendships out of loyalty, shared history and memory? Well, yes.  Until we can’t.

In a scene from the movie “Stepmom,” a dying Susan Sarandon tells interloper Julia Roberts that people stay married because they need a witness to their own life.  I think that’s why we fight for long-time friendships and forgive relatives for otherwise unpardonable breaches of civility. 

I didn’t have many words to help my friend through her relationship crisis but I loved that another of her friends wrote “his (life choice) is one of righteous certainty while yours is one of joyful inquiry.”  That sets up the contradiction in clear, creative terms. Can “certainty” and  “inquiry” be friends?  Not always but sometimes they can find a way back.

Kintsugi is an ancient method of ceramic repair (If you ever have a chance to view the 2000 Chinese movie “The Road Home” you won’t be sorry.  It’s one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever seen on film. One scene shows kintsugi in practice.)  Here are some photographs of ceramics repaired (kintsugi.) There’s a metaphor implicit in this philosophy.  If the objects are worth having in the first place then, when broken, they are worth repairing.  Sometimes they are more beautiful after the repair.  But they are never the same as before.

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I follow Hyperallergic, a daily on line, art focused news source.  Today the art of Todd Murphy ’s one man exhibit at Marc Straus Gallery is featured.  Here are some photographs from the installation. He encases women’s dresses inside plexiglass, lighted boxes.  The skirts “hide” images - tree branches, a starry night scene -  “mysteries” revealed in women’s voluminous skirts. Hmmm….quite a rich vein of psychology in these things!  The show (in Manhattan) is on view until December 11.