Broken yet beautiful

Artwork modeled by the traditional Japanese technique of kintsugi, which involves gluing together shards of pottery and coating them in lacquer infused with powdered gold. The significance of the approach is as stunning as its execution.

The idea is to not just mend what is broken, but to celebrate its imperfections as well. We all hope that our imperfections, our flaws, and our misery would go away with time, but this is never the case. We strive to cover up our flaws, burying our wounds and pretending they don't exist. Why do we suppose that? To no use, we continue to gallop in a never-ending loop, certain that we would eventually break free. Why don't we simply stop rushing around in circles and see whether any of them go anywhere? As a result of communal living, conforming to prevailing fashions, and buying into dominant societal ideologies, we are all blending together and losing our own identities. The individuality that emerges from our defects and shortcomings; the secrets we keep to ourselves. That's the message of kintsugi: embrace your imperfections and find your place in the world. My sincere wish is that kintsugi would serve as a catalyst for us to learn to love and value ourselves despite our flaws and imperfections.

Maithilee Chaudhary