Portiphillio

We clapped for carers and nurses during the Covid pandemic to show our appreciation of what they do, yet this was not necessarily followed up by the positive actions that supported those people as we made our way out of the pandemic that many of us had hoped for. News programmes have since been laced with reports of crumbling hospitals, strike action and short staffing in the health and care sectors, It appears that cracks have appeared in both the physical infrastructure as well as the human systems that are in place to look after so many in our society.

More recently we have heard reports of rising energy and resource costs, the term ‘cost of living’ has become a phrase that we are now all very used to hearing, and in its use suggests that there is inequality at play, least that there is something not quite right or ideal. All of these cracks appearing while we have a backdrop of climate change; a global scale crack that has appeared as a result of our collective inability to address numerous issues through many generations. Our society is hugely complicated, there is no one solution to each of the problems we hear of or experience, lots of factors come into play. Is the solution something for other people to come up with and implement, or is it something that we can each have a small part in working towards? ‘The Cracks’, words that I heard within a song in passing. Words that resonated and seemed to sum up, to a degree, what I was seeing in our society. Cracks appearing in its fabric that needed to be fixed. I questioned if they could be fixed, or if at this stage we could only afford a plaster to keep the problems from getting worse?

I was reminded of being told to do things in moderation and live within my means when I was younger, Sometimes I think we can forget this wisdom and end up in situations that feel a little out of control. Being creative and mending things rather than buying new is one solution the , Ive been known to darn socks before now to save a few pounds, all of which helped me start saving the money that helped solve my larger problems.

I started planting trees through an app some years ago, and while one tree makes very little difference in the world, collectively and over time, one tree can stand next to many more and change things on a great scale. Perhaps the cracks can in part be fixed by taking on some individual responsibility for what has caused them?

I tentatively started working on ’The Cracks’ in 2024, I wished to make comment on the short term nature of fixes I was seeing in regards to the larger problems we face as a society. I felt very disempowered as these problems seemed to me, to be greater than I could address as an individual, however I I still felt that I could play my part. I liked the image of a single plaster, small and unassuming, but containing the power to fix something much bigger than itself. While a plaster offers a temporary fix, it starts the journey off fixing on a scale that we can relate to and instigate as individuals. Plasters were stuck on cracks that I found in my daily life, photographed and removed, their existence as an ’action’ was transitory, I also happened to start fixing other things that were in need of mending. Soon I found that
my list of things to mend was completed, my own world was back in shape. It felt good, satisfying even, small steps allowed for the bigger picture to be addressed. When the small things close to home are working we can turn attention to the wider and bigger picture. Fuelled by a sense of empowerment and achievement that we have under our belt. I started looking at things further afield, assisting other people and groups with solutions. However I had a realisation while doing this.

Where I was using resources to repair things and create solutions, I became aware that I could be opening up new cracks. The energy used, the carbon emitted in the manufacture of the materials I was employing. I was conscious of addressing this somehow, so not to open up a spiral of subsequent cracks that would become
unfixable.

I decided that mitigation was a helpful tool and so for each problem solved, item fixed and with each plaster that was stuck over a crack, that I would plant a tree, while this would not neutralise the impact of the action entirely, it would be an action of the same sentiment, of taking on an individual responsibility (in part) to fix what I was breaking, in this case, offset some of the carbon emissions generated as a part of my repair processes and in the resources used for ‘The cracks’ work. I was documenting the plasters as I stuck them over cracks, the digital realm was also of concern as a use of precious resource that caused cracks of its own. I addressed the issues around the environmental impact of storing things digitally online, again carbon offset felt like a reasonable action. Already I have planted a small wood off trees, small actions add up to form something of substance.
I wonder that as individuals we are limited in how we may fix the wider issues of our time, but that in embracing a collectively responsibility we have great potential in fixing our infrastructure, social issues and environmental impact sooner than we might imagine.