Visible Mending

Instrumentation: Piano Trio (singing and speaking)

Duration: ca. 6:30

Program Note:

A number of my close friends practice the art of visible mending – a technique in which the tears in a garment are repaired in a manner that overtly draws attention to the repair itself. These repairs are often highly ornamented and stylized, using eye-catching patches of fabric or elaborate and colorful embroidered figures that highlight the place of damage and the work that was done to reconstruct the garment. Visible mending is a pragmatic practice that also elevates the labor of repair into an act of artistic expression.

It becomes as much a ritual as a handicraft – a way of imbuing a place of weakness in the weave of a textile with a new and restorative meaning. Importantly, my friends view their work of visible mending as being situated in a larger practice of bringing repair to the social fabric of their communities – a work that is becoming more and more valuable and necessary with each passing day. In this piece, I have woven the words of the poet H.D. into a new text that resonates with the ideas and patterns that permeate my friends’ work – life, care, growth, tenderness, love, and the sublime.

Visible Mending was written for the 2025 highSCORE Festival at the Centro di Spiritualità e Cultura Papa Luciani in Santa Guiustina, Italy and premiered by Trio Kanon.