‘Sidewalk Kintsukuroi’ Repairs Road Cracks With Real 23.5 Gold Dust!

With the use of Japanese art Kintsukuroi, Rachel Sussman plans to repair road cracks with real gold dust. She wants to show how broken things can be beautiful once again through it. In her "Sidewalk Kintsukuroi" project, the artist aims to bring the ceramic "golden repair" to everyone's awareness.

In Japanese tradition, Kintsugi or Kintsukuroi is an art that treats broken pottery with lacquer made of powdered gold and silver. It's the same idea Sussman has on her "Sidewalk Kintsukuroi." 

In Rachel Sussman official website, she showed the process through amazing hand painted sample pictures. The artist also noted that "Sidewalk Kintsukuroi" is really a costly project and it would need sponsors to materialize. 

For those who are interested, Rachel is selling her three 8.5 x 11" photograph editions at $1500. While she also accepts any project that will have something to do with Kintsukurois, she has her sample at Des Moines Art Center, Mass MoCA and Now Space La.

On another report, Fastco Design also shared interesting facts about "Sidewalk Kintsukuroi" by Rachel Sussman. The procedure and materials of how "golden repair" is also here. 

Sussman would first fill the gaps with dust and other tree-sap based resins, the Kintsukuroi Japanese art will be complete with the use of chakpur for gold dust sprinkling. The device is a small thing utilized for mandala sand painting, she runs it back and forth to seal the fissures with 23.5 karat gold and bronze mix.

To end, Rachel Sussman really loves to make recreating beauty from broken things. For her, "Sidewalk Kintsukuroi" isn't just a project but it's a legacy of history and beauty.