Description

This clothwork representation of a human heart - with polyester stuffing and golden thread sewn across the chambers of the heart - was created by co-producer Juliet Eccles for display in the co-curated gallery trail "Nothing Without Us: Experiences of Disability" at the Pitt Rivers Museum, curated by Kyle Lewis Jordan, running from 16th November 2023 - 6th October 2024.

This artpiece - alongside "A Feeling Like Wearing a Glove" and "Bent Big Toes" - depicts the embodied experience of Juliet and her brothers Patrick and Christopher, each of whom experienced disablement in their childhoods that was shaped by the medical care they had received.

Community curation: Patrick was born with a hole in his heart. He had open heart surgery aged four to mend a leaky valve. The surgeons brutally cut him from his neck to his navel and broke his rib cage to mend the heart. Four decades later, with modern technology the surgeons repaired the valve again with a less invasive procedure. He is now a healthy adult aged fifty-six.

Gold’s corrosion resistance makes it ideal for the high degrees of sterility required for medical instruments. Kintsugi can be seen as a metaphor for resilience, healing, and beauty in its brokenness. It is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the breakage with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. - Juliet E., An artist who happens to be disabled.