Mending

Mending is a body of artwork created in response to ancestral trauma inherited between women. This paper discusses the exhibition of work, which consists of media installation, sculpture, and photography. Mending confronts Walter Benjamin’s patriarchal argument that one must intellectually excavate deep memory. Rather, the processes used to create the body of work engage a sensorial approach, and attempt to both reconstruct embodied memory and reconcile trauma. The act of mending is an historically feminine gesture appropriate for resolving the transgenerational trauma of the female body’s experience. Additionally, the media serves as witness, and has the potential to act as an impartial observer in the process of unraveling embodied trauma, allowing for reflexive self-witness. Overall, Mending rejects the thought-centric process of excavation, instead centering sensory-based spiritual practices in contemporary art related to nature immersion, meditative ritual, and collaboration between women working to heal handed-down victimization.