Laura Ajayi (she/her)
Things we have broken, 2021
charcoal and chalk pastel on paper
22" x 30"
In our home, things are broken. The glass that is dropped on kitchen tile shatters into a hundred shards and I dutifully sweep them up, picking each piece out of the dust and crumbs, rinsing it, storing it away. I am saving these smashed vessels as artifacts of home life. At first, they are simple symbols of the chaos that enters a home alongside toddlers with slippery fingers. But as time passes, these broken shards of glass grow heavy as carriers of all the things we have broken, the things that are breaking down. Women have always been, more or less, pushed to breaking points. Mothering has always been, more or less, untenable. And now we are in an age of environmental collapse, mass extinction, we mothers. And now we are in an age of pandemic. Illness. Economic failure. Mental health crisis. Social crisis. In Things we have broken, I am creating a document of these breakdowns, hopeful that we will move eventually into healing and repair.
@lauraajayi