I am pleased to announce that we have received more funding from Arts Council England in May 2023 to run From the Fragment to the Whole 3
We will be running one-to-one glass making workshops for new participants and a series of art making group workshops for previous participants.
From the Fragment To the Whole is a community engaged art project that explores glass as a metaphor for the lived experience of surviving domestic abuse.
This short film was made with footage of the workshops with survivors of domestic abuse and interviews with the participants and the artist Roberta De Caro:
This project is founded on the premise that creative engagement with materials can be a powerful way to process one’s past, creating opportunities to transfer some of the emotional weight onto the physicality of the material or the object created. This can be particularly effective when the material reflects the characteristics of the experience of surviving abuse. Interesting parallels emerge when associating the issue of domestic abuse to the contradictory qualities of glass such fragility and strength, transparency and opacity, sharpness and tactility, the ability to shatter and hurt as opposed to the possibility of being reformed into a new whole from fragments.
Focusing specifically on glass and its material qualities, as well as its processes, the project aims at producing abstract representations of the personal histories of survivors of domestic abuse through a series of workshops where participants work from fragments of glass to create an artwork. Initially they are invited to break a sheet of clear glass with a hammer. The shards are then carefully collected one by one, and reassembled onto a new colourful sheet.
Once fired in the kiln the new glass panel created displays the scars as features of the work, mirroring the personal experience of rebuilding one’s life after abuse , and of the process of slowly reconstructing the fragmented self . Similarly to the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken clay vases are repaired with gold lacquer, the breakages are not hidden or concealed, but given prominence and value. They are highlighted as evidence of resilience: they show the marks of surviving struggles and remaining whole despite the past breakages. The resulting glasswork resonates with meaning, as well as being aesthetically pleasing. It is about repair, reforming, recreating.
The artworks created in the workshops are part of the body of work ‘From the Fragment To the Whole’. As the project evolves, more and more survivors will be sharing and owning their stories, and new artworks will be assimilated into the collection. This work is a way of offering meaningful experiences to those who will participate in the project, but it is also a way of reaching out to the general public through exhibitions, so as to raise awareness of the widespread phenomenon of domestic abuse. According to the Office for National Statistics ‘Almost one in three women aged 16 to 59 will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime’ (Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2019). The stories told during the workshops are a testimony of the difficulties and obstacles in the way of those who are lucky to have survived it, which is not a given: an average of two women a week are killed by a partner or a former partner in England and Wales alone ( Office for National Statistics (2019) Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2018 -average taken over 10 years-).
The collection of works represents genuine documents of real life experiences of people who have suffered abuse, and who are still dealing with its consequences in a cultural environment that more often than not puts obstacles in their way. The harsh reality is that it is still strongly based on prejudices and taboos. Despite the fact that society is starting to realise the entity of the problem, a lot of work is still to be done in order to change the current attitude, starting from much needed improvements to the legal system so as to adequately protect the victims, and develop strategies of accountability for the perpetrators.
This project is now supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. I am so grateful to the Arts Council for contributing with a generous grant of £15,000 towards the current series of workshops and the final exhibition at Espacio gallery starting on the 30th June 22. From the Fragment to the Whole officially a multi award-winning project, having been awarded the 2019 Student Initiated Project Prize by City & Guilds of London Art School.
After a successful pilot scheme in April/May 2021, the first part of project From the Fragment To the Whole is now completed , having created 24 artworks by women survivors of domestic abuse in one-to-one glass making workshops and exhibited the work in a light installation at Espacio Gallery E2 7DG, London in June / July 22.
I will soon restart a new round of the project inviting more women survivors of domestic abuse to tell their stories through the materiality of glass.
The sessions offered a safe space to engage creatively with fragments of glass to create new art objects as we process experiences of surviving abuse. Fused together from broken glass, these artworks speak of our strength and resilience, documenting life stories that are too often unheard, misunderstood, or ignored.
If you are a woman who has experienced domestic abuse and would like to take part please get in touch with Roberta at roberta(at)robertadecaro.com
