People of Design Showcase Series – HEAL: Repair+

ABOUT

HEAL explores the concept of healing and mending emotional memories through the design, restoration, and transformation of broken objects.

What does “retail therapy” do for us? And yet, why do we keep some things even after they have lost their form and function?

As throwaway culture, mental health and wellbeing have been drawing increasing attention, HEAL: Repair+ delves into narratives surrounding brokenness and broken items and how the act of repair can provide an alternative path to healing.

An open call was made via social media and community partner outreach to submit broken, spoilt, and faulty objects that were meaningful or precious. Eight objects were chosen and paired with eight designers who were invited to restore the submitted objects. Through discussion and collaboration between the owners and designers, they explored the memories associated with their objects and pushed the boundaries of creative restoration to create new objects and new memories.

HEAL: Repair+ takes collaboration in a new direction as it evolves from Hans Tan Studio’s successful exhibitions of R for Repair (2021) that highlighted global waste with ingenuity to give broken and discarded items a new lease of life and R for Repair: London x Singapore (2022), which added further elements of cultural exchange and connected humans from across the globe.

HEAL: Repair+ is presented at 42 Waterloo Street in partnership with the Arts Resource Hub and is one in a ten-part People of Design Showcase Series presented across the Bras Basah.Bugis Design District. The Arts Resource Hub supports Arts Self-Employed Persons and freelance practitioners in Singapore to unlock new opportunities and grow meaningful careers.

ORGANISER

Yishun Health

Yishun Health (YH) is a network of medical institutions and health facilities of the National Healthcare Group in the north of Singapore, which includes Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Yishun Community Hospital. Repair+ was generously funded by the Alexandra Health Fund, which aims to enhance health and quality of life for YH’s patients through measures such as education, research and community collaboration.

CO-ORGANISER

Hans Tan Studio

Hans is a designer maker, curator, and educator based in Singapore, whose work explores creativity through “deformative inquiry,” making use of utility as a pretext for provoking discourse. His work, infused with narratives and collective memory, examines design and its industry.

CONTACT

Name: Hans Tan Studio
Email Address: everyday@hanstan.net

Top image: Photo by Jonathan Levi

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