On August 31, the Minute Gallery in the St. Edward’s University Fine Arts Gallery hosted a reception for its fourth exhibit: “Adapt, Mend & Repair” by St. Edward’s alum Jenn Hassin.

Beginning on August 24, the exhibit showcased the hall covered in meticulously folded newspaper with thin, string-like, golden paper material weaved through the middle. While the piece “Embrace the Damage” is up for presentation, Hassin also included an interactive installation, “Listen and Repair.” The piece asks observers to contribute to the work by adding golden stitched scars on a tablecloth, mending the damage they create.

This technique is inspired by the Japanese method “Kintsugi,” which inspired the exhibit as a whole. The Japanese used the method to repair broken pottery with gold; with the intended message being that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

Hassin bridged the connection of Kintsugi to recent tragedies and controversies across the globe and intertwined the messaging in “Adapt, Mend & Repair.”

“I wanted to take the idea and be inspired by it, but layer it with our sociopolitical damage that we have in our country right now,” Hassin said. “And try to bring something to the table that’s hopeful.”

The idea behind the golden thread is to add a glimmer of hope amidst the numerous tragedies that have plagued the world in the last few months.

“To really enforce the idea that we will get through this as a country,” Hassin said when explaining the intentions behind the exhibit, “We’ll be stronger for it.”   

Hassin became obsessed with the newspaper and the news in general, making the headlines stick out on the “Embrace the Damage” piece to inspire observers to research and become aware of the various topics.

Hassin explained that the project took approximately four weeks to complete with over 180 hours of work.

However, the Texas born artist is no stranger to paper-based pieces of work—especially with newspaper. Hassin explained that this piece was different than her typical works with paper, as the folding is reminiscent of origami instead her usual rolling method viewed in some of her other works like “A Battle Lost” and “Borders, Israel.”

Observers can still experience the exhibit until September 14.