We are often warned about broken things. Broken things are ruined and have no value. They belong in landfills and dumpsters and have no place amongst whole objects.  They are to be discarded, abandoned, replaced- all for fulfilling an inevitable truth- everything and everyone breaks. I have long since been fascinated with the act of breaking- the transformative process and liminal space which negates value, stability and wholeness. Much of Western thought has concentrated on the aftermath that occurs after these breaks. Still, this piece is inspired by a philosophy that does not seek to replace but transform brokenness into beauty.

Kintsukuroi, often used interchangeably with Kintsugi, meaning "golden repair" or "join with gold," is a Japanese art form and philosophy that involves repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, highlighting the cracks and fractures rather than concealing them. A popular origin story suggests that Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436–1490), the eighth shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, sent a broken Chinese tea bowl for repair. After the returned bowl was repaired with metal staples, Yoshimasa commissioned Japanese craftsmen to find a more aesthetically pleasing method, creating the art of kintsugi. Kintsugi's development is closely linked to the rise of the Japanese tea ceremony and the appreciation for wabi-sabi aesthetics, which emphasizes beauty in imperfections and the transient nature of things. The tea ceremony was a significant part of the Muromachi period (1336-1573), and tea bowls were highly valued, often being repaired with kintsugi. 

Like the art form of its namesake, Kintsukuroi aims to demonstrate a sonic rendering of repair, illustrating music's powerful ability to mend and heal visible and invisible cracks in the human spirit and serve as a reminder that we are never broken, but simply transformed.