ENAMEL VESSEL (2019)

Breakdown can offer a space for innovation, and philosopher Elizabeth Spelman comments on the ‘complicated attitude’ of repair.

I find the complexities of repair interesting spaces for material investigation, questions such as how objects/processes communicate values, function as both old and new, end and beginning, professional or amateur workings. Part of what I’m trying to understand is what happens to the values of a craft when it is appropriated and extremely different materials and skills are used? And what happens to the value of the object– does the appropriated craft still add ~ emotional, financial, craft-based ~ value?

I repaired this damaged cloisonné vessel with a low temperature enamel, fired in a conventional oven. Craft, seen as authentic, can help us deal with the unfamiliarity of breakage, to reflect, and adjust to change. Resilience in coping with the unfamiliar and risk are essential skills in repair, but what happens to the resilience of a craft when using inauthentic materials, even if to preserve a historic object?