Ocean Scars

This broken sea urchin shell was the first natural object that Fukumaru tried to repair with kintsugi. Received from a friend, the shell was already broken before the artist’s cats inflicted further damage—even eating some of the pieces! The careful restoration is supplemented with red thread to hold together the missing sections. In Japanese culture, red thread represents destined bonds of human connection. The fragility of the delicate shell is held together by these connecting threads, evoking human efforts to both heal nature and be healed by nature.