Mend attempts at healing, hope for hearts
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Recent surveys do not paint a hopeful picture for the future of long-term relationships of any sort. In March of this year, a study by the Family Policy Studies Centre revealed that more than two in five marriages will now end in divorce and that cohabiting couples are twice as likely to split up by the time their children reach the age of 16. In a society still sold the dream of romantic love via the music media and film industry; why are we finding it so difficult to commit ourselves to love some one ‘till death do us part’? Surely this is the most lasting and significant type of love? The problem is, it’s not very romantic, is it? Try feeling romantic at 3am when the baby’s crying, or when your partner contracts the first stages of Alzheimer’s. If we live with someone else, we soon discover that reality is not very romantic all the time. Is the answer then to move swiftly between sexual partner and romantic liaisons, always leaving when the going gets tough? Mend is a banner of images showing a lily that has lost its flower and the various attempts to mend it using a needle and thread, tape, glue, plasters and hammer. Something seems impossibly broken, yet there is a hope that through the pain of brokenness, healing can be achieved. The banner toured Bradford Cathedral, the Thornbury Centre Bradford, Holy Trinity Leeds, St Nicholas’ Church Hull and finished its tour at Gallery II, University of Bradford where it was accompanied by a series of 24 photographs taken in collaboration with 12 couples in long-term relationships. Mend will be showing next at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe in February 2006. I can provide educational workshops to accompany the piece.