On Mending
Published by Hawthorn Press
What is mending to you and I? What can mending be? Become? Is there a greater narrative, one which centres on an integral human requirement, for the very survival of our souls and ongoing paths?
‘Remembering the touch of someone long gone can break your heart’
Tobin Low, ‘The Ghost in the Machine’, This American Life, 757, 31 December 2021
Within On Mending, Pym leads us on a sobering journey through a selected number of storied, mostly centred around garments, but other objects too.
On a personal note, as a relatively innocent student, I remember first observing this artists’ work at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London (2017). No, the exhibition had to be searched to be found, Pym at this time was no Westwood. Yet the humble and quiet nature of her work, stuck with me over the years and something always drove me to check out on her progress - where would mending lead her?
In tangible terms, for the past few years it has led her on to a quest to levitate the broken and cast aside clothing, the chemist items of a loved one, the weight of living always observed. How has she interpreted all of this? Through the visible mend of a repair done to highlight the mend not hide it. She does not profess to make the perfect, she dances and celebrates the broken with this visual token of love.
As an artist and practitioner myself, I am always curious to learn the back story of each fellow artist I cross paths with. What brought Pym to work within the arts? As a former nurse, the transition to Textiles may seem suprising. Yes this past comment from Pym is a tell all…’Nursing is such intimate work and requires great tenderness and care because you are with people when they are feeling vulnerable’. Mending work builds on what is left behind. ‘Darning is small acts of care,’ she says, ‘and paying close attention.’ So here we see the link.
I will not reveal too much about On Mending, but I will implore you to purchase your own edition. Packed with narrative and depth of meaning, as well as a multitude of illustrations, covering both her own practice and studio as well as the items mended.
Mending matters, no, this is no fool proof repair manual, nor does it cover the historical, the contextual, the cultural. It is raw and pure even heart wrenching at times. I guarantee on reading your thoughts will elongate the time taken to read its pages.
On Mending
Published by Hawthorn Press