A new exhibition at the Addenbrooke's Gallery from 22 July – 9 October 2022.
Scars show that you have lived. I don’t think they should be hidden away, you should be proud of them.
Colin (Participant)
We are delighted to have opened a new exhibition, Kintsugi People, in The Addenbrooke’s Gallery.
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with precious metals, making it more valuable by virtue of the fact it has been broken.
This project was devised by Dr Carol Holliday, psychotherapist and lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Through her 30 years of clinical practice, Carol found people often used metaphors of brokenness, fragmentation, splits or cracks to express distress or describe traumatic events. Finding a poetic relationship between this language and the art of repair, Carol was inspired to create the Kintsugi People project as a positive representation of how we can heal and learn to embrace our own histories, both inside and out.
The people photographed in the exhibition volunteered to take part in the Kintsugi People project through an open call. Each volunteer worked with Carol and photographer Ryan Davies to create a pose to best represent them, which Ryan so sensitively captured using his technical expertise. Carol then hand-painted 24-carat gold leaf over each photographic print to create these beautiful portraits. The finished artworks are the result of true collaboration.
CUH Arts is delighted to work with Carol to bring this exhibition to our hospitals. We do recognise, however, that everybody responds to illness and accident differently, and that not all scars are visible. If you are in distress, contact your GP, or call 111 and select option 2. CUH Staff can always access Health Assured, 24 hours a day, or speak to a member of the Occupational Health team.
CUH Arts is generously supported by Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (opens in a new tab).
Artwork copyright Carol Holliday, photography by Ryan Davies.