We Mend, One Piece at a Time

My photo begins in Bangkok, Thailand where I visited the Yoko Ono’s Mend Piece art exhibit. The beauty of this exhibit is you are the one making the art and you are the one mending the pieces of broken ceramics. You can use glue, tape, rope or whatever is on the table to help. None of the pieces there fit, but you have creative freedom to mend them together however you see fit. The goal of Yoko Ono’s exhibit is to allow a space for healing to happen. By allowing you to experience the mending process with something so simple as mending a plate or a cup.

I went to this exhibit to be the eyes and ears of my female friend who loves Yoko Ono. I didn’t know what to expect when I entered the room and saw broken plates and cups on a table. I walked around seeing the mended pieces and eventually sat down to begin my own mending process. At first all I could think about was how silly it felt. I was a child back in school doing basic arts and crafts. It didn’t matter that nothing fit together I simply created my own masterpiece regardless.

At first, I tried using glue to hold the pieces together while slowly learning that wouldn’t work. I looked for pieces that might be easier to put together but all I found were varying sizes and parts. This is the part that struck me the most profoundly. Normally I would be frustrated that nothing fit and, in that moment, I just accepted that fact. There was nothing I could do but work with the broken pieces I had. So, I started using the tape carefully mending my plate back together. It wasn’t easy and it took a lot of mental work with careful hands to mend this plate. This is where the beauty of Yoko Ono’s work comes into play. Through mending the plate, you begin to mend yourself. I chuckled as I brought this abomination of a plate back to life somehow. In doing so I started to understand that there was nothing so broken that it couldn't be mended. I thought back to all the parts of myself that I thought could and would never heal. All of my regrets, my pain, my trauma and you name it.

None of those things mattered in that moment. I was learning that I could mend myself using those same pieces I believed were broken. However, that's not the whole truth, is it? Those parts of me weren’t broken and neither was I. They just didn’t fit together anymore in my life. I cried happy tears that day as I sat at the table mending my piece. I no longer had to be the broken adult I led myself to believe. I was but a child crying at a table finally understanding how to mend my own self. I needed to repurpose those parts that no longer fit not try to force them back together. These broken pieces formed a new plate, a new cup, and a new version of myself. I found freedom in that absolution. How could I have known such freedom would come from a simple task of mending.

This moment transcended my entire life leading me to that art exhibit on a random weekday in Bangkok. I left that room feeling weightless and more grounded than ever. As if I had finally let go of a decade's worth of baggage telling me I would never be whole again. I highly recommend this exhibit to anyone and I hope you find the exhilaration of freedom it brings. I think Yoko Ono’s message was that you are the piece that needs to mend. The art is up to you and the healing comes through art. That is the beauty of art and how it can help us process a lifetime of pain.