Day of Mending (image courtesy Bridget Donahue)
In 2015 Yoko Ono installed her “Mend Piece,” where shards of broken china, little spools of thread, and plastic bottles of Elmer’s glue were offered up for visitors to reassemble as they liked. It was part of her exhibition The Riverbed, held simultaneously at Galerie Lelong and Andrea Rosen Gallery. Then, the work felt consonant with Ono’s universalist aesthetic: it was not some specific, urgent suture; there was no promise of an instant fix for some irremediable rent in a social fabric. Instead, the meditative piece highlighted mending as an action, as a process of attention, and as a state of mind.
Now, of course, the environment is a little different. Things generally seem to be in dire need of repair. On December 3, India Salvor Menuez and Misty Pollen will host a “Day of Mending” at Bridget Donahue Gallery. Unlike Ono’s mass of white shards, which belong to no one and everyone, participants in this Day of Mending are encouraged to bring their own materials — “the sewing/craft projects that have been sitting in the corners of their rooms, the materials they have collected and never put to use,” as they participate in a space of collective and personal mending. The format is drawn from the traditionally feminine practice of the sewing circle, and, in what’s been an especially rough year for women, it seems like a powerful format to heal some damage.
When: Sunday, December 3, 2pm–5pm
Where: Bridget Donahue Gallery (99 Bowery, 2nd Floor, Chinatown, Manhattan)
More info here
