Kintsugi (or Kintsukuroi) is the Japanese artistic practice of reviving shattered ceramics through the use of lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The process highlights and refines the flaws within the pieces, thereby beautifying and acknowledging the piece’s history, rather than discarding the shattered ceramic. I seek to borrow from this philosophical practice within my own work in this cohesive. Each piece is a collage constructed from photos of items abandoned on the streets of New York highlighting their abandonment in an artistic manner. I wish to show that, despite their owners deeming the items to be useless, these items still have potential to become beautiful in their own way. My usage of mostly muted colors stems from our ignorance of these objects and their capability to blend into the background of our daily lives.

We walk past them, treating them as if they were a part of the scenery.

In this project, I aim to examine the utilitarian nature of our society and how we treat our belongings. Whenever an item breaks, our first instinct is to get rid of it and acquire a replacement. It’s most apparent in New York and other big cities because everyone leaves their trash (sofas, lamps, shelves, etc.) by the wayside to be collected, but this behavior commonly occurs throughout America. We have no respect for our items, and I believe these habits have negatively impacted and permeated into every aspect of our lives. We harm the environment through constantly buying and replacing imperfect items, and this desire for perfection has not only impacted the world but our relationships with others. We refuse attempts at fixing or repurposing the broken items and instead cast them aside.