My Hand, in Pieces

For me, this piece holds a lot of sentimental value, as it is a persistent representation of all of the various memorable injuries I have sustained to my, now, nondominant hand. The piece is a composite of multiple casts of both of my hands, which were shattered, mixed together and then carefully pieced back together using thin copper rods welded, bent and glued together. Each piece was selected carefully, with thought given to each imperfection in the mould to ensure that it reflected the severity of the injury both physically and emotionally. Certain areas are left without a plaster mould, which reflects how much those injuries mean to me. I look back on some injuries–such as the area missing from the lower half of my palm–with a great sense of nostalgia as they were the results of positive and formative experiences in my life. However, they are also a reflection of how I view my mental health, barely holding itself together, which is reflected in the style of the piece. Copper corrodes and the method in which the repairs have been conducted, do not lend themselves to longevity, but that doesn't matter, as long as I am able to make it through the next little bit… Then we can implement a quick fix. You know how at that one place you worked, there was this odd solution to a problem, for me it was starting a generator. We knew the generator needed to be repaired but we didn’t have the time to pull it from active service and fix it properly, so we developed a method of starting it involving a screwdriver and, what was probably an OSHA violation or two. We knew it would break eventually, that it didn’t solve our problems for good, but that didn’t matter as long as we managed to get the current job done. In the same way, it doesn’t matter if the current set of fixes holds, as long as I am able to make it through whatever is coming at me, right now.