Sabrina Zhang
Sabrina Zhang
Break and Mend, Mend and Break
In the United States, more than 140,000 people die from alcoholism every year. As someone who comes from a family of struggling addicts, I've seen firsthand what it means to fall apart and painstakingly put yourself back together again. Not once, but twice. Three times. Four.Each time hurts differently in its own way, but with each act of healing and restoration, we become stronger, more resilient, and more spiritually connected with others and ourselves. In addiction treatment, we often seek hope from an inner light, a "God of my own understanding".Sometimes this takes the form of religion; other times, it signifies relationships in our lives that give us a reason to keep going. Break and Mend, Mend and Break explores how repairing the cracks in our souls leads to greater moments of self-understanding and clarity through leveraging the discarded remnants of shattered beer and liquor bottles. After an arduous process of cleaning and sanding, the shards are assembled with stained glass technique, a method which both valorizes the repair process and is itself imbued with a rich history of spiritual storytelling. The final object is a beacon of light, one that in the process of making has enabled me to find my own kind of hope: creation.
Contact:
