Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world

Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world - Katie Treggiden

“People have been engaging in repairs for thousands of years. It is only recently that we stopped repairing things, and that is completely unsustainable.”

We live in a disposable society where single-use items are the norm and it's easier to replace them than to fix them. We no longer have to repair things - and yet we do. As we are beginning to shift from the linear model of "take, make, and dispose" that has dominated Western economies since the industrial revolution, and are seeking something more circular, it is apt to ask what repairing really means. This book features 25 artists, curators, repairers, and makers who have rejected the charm of the fast, disposable, and easy in favor of the patina of use, stories of age, and the longevity of care and repair. These profiles are accompanied by several essays addressing the social, cultural, and environmental roles of repair in a world full of waste. The book is divided into five chapters and aims to explore various aspects of repair through individual authors - repair as function restoration, repair as storytelling, as activism, as healing or regeneration. The book thus provides insights into specific methods, from traditional ones like willow or sisal weaving, the Japanese technique kintsugi, to experimental ones like repairing furniture with paper-mache or creating an entire collection of garment accessories from a single sheep slaughtered for meat on a local farm.