Shining DESPAIR
Holland Houdek
USA

Neckpiece « Hysteroscopy », 2023
Copper, crystals, patina, 406x89x6.35mm
Hand-fabrication, stone setting
Photo : Grant Taylor

Neckpiece « Oophorectomy », 2023
Copper, crystals, patina, 390x110x10mm
Hand fabrication, stone setting
Photo : Grant Taylor

Words fail in the face of miscarriage. Our thoughts, like our bodies, betray us. Grief, isolation, shame, blame, and other unnamable feelings cloud one’s ability to articulate the pain of this harrowing yet all-to-common natural event. Against the inadequacy of language and the silences that surround this taboo subject, I turned to the process of making to confront this unnamable loss and to help shift my and other people’s perceptions of miscarriage and pregnancy loss. The pieces in this series helped me to un-make and re-make that deep and embodied pain into something transformative. They call attention to the need to find personal ways to cope, persevere, and make sense of life in the face of loss, while reminding women and people with uteruses who have had similar experiences that they are not alone.

More « Shining DESPAIR »

Shining Despair – Maud Traon/ UK

« This Mess We Are All In » was created in 2021, a year when the first aftermath of the long COVID period began to take hold…

Shining Despair – Jeannette Knigge / Netherlands

Looking at the world from behind your curtains, untouchable yet vulnerable.

Shining Despair – Donald Friedlich / USA

For most of us despair comes and goes.

Shining Despair – Jounghye Park / South Korea

The ‘Saves’ series is a collection created by layering and carving small pieces of silk fabric …

Shining Despair – Thu Huong Nguyen / Vietnam

Cicada in The Changing Age is my venture into embracing the rapid rise of technology …

Shining Despair – Iris Merkle / Germany

Vital functions are usually listened to with a stethoscope …

Shining Despair – Lily Pree / Greece

Despair is the lack of little breathless reflections.

Shining Despair – Javier Ens / Spain

Alchemical Landscape is a ring that evokes the shape of a monolith …

Shining Despair – Kamile Staneliene / Lithuania

The brooch “Shining Despair” reflects the contrast between life’s darkness and the light that endures within it.

Shining Despair – Uri Samet / Israel

From circumstances defined mostly by despair, anguish and darkness – small fragments of light emit.