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 – Thu Huong Nguyen / Vietnam

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

Shining Despair – Minami Hiranuma / Japan

The motif of this work is my feelings when I picked up my grandmother’s bones.

Shining Despair – Jina Seo / USA-South Korea

My work reveals inner conflict and suffering by contrasting societal expectations with the personal turmoil I often experience.

Shining Despair – Spam Glam / UK

Extreme changes in my life have caused me so much anguish …

Shining Despair – Marilyn Koch / USA

We Are A Colony is an uncanny …

Shining Despair – Katherine Hubble / Australia

Cultured pearls are created by implanting an irritant into an oyster.

Shining Despair – Wiebke Pandikow / Finland

Biodegradable plastic bags have been reworked into a basket-like object …

Shining Despair – Marta Alonso / Spain

Mayfly, an ephemeral flight and Glimpse the universe …

Shining Despair – Laurel Fulton / USA

We experience the world in the only way we can, through and with our bodies.

Shining Despair – Eiko Nakahara / Japan

In the current state of the world, people hate each other and there are countries full of hatred.