Visual Arts and Digital Humanities

The Beauty of Kintsugi - Kintsugi is a centuries-old Japanese technique of repairing broken or imperfect pottery with gold in order to highlight the flaws. The term comes from the Japanese words "kin", which means "golden", and "tsugi", which means "joinery". It is a unique tradition that celebrates the imperfect; cracks and missing pieces are viewed as beautiful. I have spent my time at Union College majoring in Art History with a specific focus on Asian art. Several years ago my family and I took a trip to Japan where we hiked from Kyoto to Tokyo and fully immersed ourselves in the culture around us. It was on this trip that I truly began to develop a love for Japan and the vast history full of traditions that it had to offer. After sitting in a traditional tea ceremony and witnessing first hand the unique process that had seemingly been instilled in the man performing it, I remember holding the teabowl between both hands, feeling the warmth of the tea and noticing the flawed, yet beautiful way in which it was made. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about the art behind these ceramics. Here at Union, I utilized my Sophomore Research Seminar in order to further study this very topic. I spent the term researching the centrality of pottery bowls to the Momoyama period (1568-1600) tea ceremony, particularly the ways in which the bowls' form, style, and aesthetic encapsulate many of the ideal philosophical dimensions. I was able to do this by analyzing a teabowl from within Union's collection that had kintsugi repairs. I have spent several terms now studying Asian Art, the Japanese culture and history. I was able to further my understanding of the unique technique of Kintsugi as I created my own interpretation of this tradition by breaking up old, thrifted tea sets and pieced them together with epoxy resin and gold powder to produce new, organic forms, as inspired by artist, Yeesookyung. Yeesookyung assembles discarded shards of porcelain by fusing them together with gold leaf to create new forms. The switch to online learning for the final term of my Senior year, has caused me to think about the great importance of digitization, especially in terms of ancient Asian ceramics. I utilized photogrammetry in order to virtually model selected works from Union College's Permanent Collection of Asian ceramics in order to preserve the art and for students to utilize in their studies. I will discuss the history of Kintsugi and the process in which I used to make my own works; through the manipulation of broken, thrifted ceramics and the arrangement of data to create 3D virtual models.; Nomads -The inspiration for my Studio Art thesis came from talks I had with some of my closest friends and family members who are from Myanmar and studying in the United States. Most of them plan to leave Myanmar and settle in the United States due to social, economic and political issues back in Myanmar. My series of large scale oil paintings shares their intimate stories, presenting viewers with their struggles and experiences of living in-between cultures and finding a place to belong.