Artist Statement
Working within ideas linked to new materialism, the work suggest that matter holds its own capacity for renewal, where gold articulates fragility and persistence and proposes that what is repaired is not lesser, but differently whole.
My work is often described as playful, moving between ideas, images, objects, symbols, and fleeting notions. Exploring the tension between past and present, the shifting nature of memory, and the subtle links that persist across time.
The act of remembering becomes both fragile and transformative, allowing creative exploration to hold, reshape, and re imagine the past. Through experimental materials, intuitive mark making, and reflective processes, each work becomes a space where personal narrative, repair, and imaginative reconstruction intersect openly.
My practice begins with a painting. Once complete, I process it into sections for printing, creating multiple versions through both printing and photocopying processes that enhance or deliberately degrade the image. This generates several sectional variations while also enlarging the original work.
These images are then cut into shapes, producing multiple possible configurations, like a series of evolving jigsaws. When reassembling the pieces, I allow the seams to remain visible, treating them not as flaws to be hidden but as sites of resilience and renewal.
This process is informed by kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken vessels with gold. Like kintsugi, my work reframes fracture as a vital part of an object’s history. The lines of reassembly become luminous thresholds — points where vulnerability and strength meet, where loss opens into transformation.
This underpins my processes of fragmentation, repair, and reconstruction mirror lived experience, where damage is not an endpoint but a condition for transformation. The act of reassembling becomes a quiet assertion of endurance, acknowledging vulnerability while affirming the possibility of renewal.
The gilded background in not passive, it establishes lines, grids and shapes that force the viewer to look beyond the obvious imagery as these shapes reveal themselves beyond the image
What emerges is neither a restoration of the past nor a perfect surface, but a hybrid form: something altered, scarred, and yet more complete. By honouring the beauty of repair, I invite viewers to reconsider their relationship with imperfection, continuity, and change.
Debra Danu Matthews. Artist Statement 2026
