Scar Illuminated: Finding Beauty in the Broken
Presented by Sarah Tracton / vvrenspace
DETAILS
Free, booking required
VVREN
9 Lygon Street, Carlton VIC, Australia
DATES
Thu 14 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Thu 14 May 8.30 – 10.30pmBook now
Opening
Fri 15 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Sat 16 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Sun 17 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Mon 18 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Tue 19 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Wed 20 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Thu 21 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Fri 22 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Sat 23 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Sun 24 May 6.30 – 10.30pm
Scar Illuminated is an exhibition of handcrafted porcelain lighting by fine artist and designer Sarah Tracton, exploring fragility, rupture and renewal through light. The works draw on the Japanese philosophy of sakabashira, where perfection invites decline, embracing fracture as a generative force rather than a flaw.
Each light is created using Tracton’s signature technique of porcelain slip poured onto plaster, forming delicate translucent sheets that contract and crack unpredictably under the intense heat of the firing, ensuring every piece is uniquely shaped by fire, gravity and chance.
Breakage is inevitable, yet instead of being discarded, these flaws are carefully repaired with gold using kintsugi. The cracks become luminous scars, and the repaired porcelain wears its wounds proudly, perfectly unique in its idiosyncrasies. Damage transforms into strength, inviting viewers to see beauty beyond perfection, where every scar becomes a source of light.
Participants
Sarah Tracton
Sarah Tracton is an award-winning Australian artist and lighting designer whose work pushes the boundaries of materiality, merging fine art, functional design and craft. Drawn to porcelain’s possibilities, she is known for her technique of pouring porcelain slip onto plaster to handcraft lighting that is luminous, experimental and ethereal. A two-time Good Design Award winner, she is internationally recognised for her sustainable, handcrafted approach to lighting and has exhibited in Australia, New York and at DesignArt Tokyo, Japan.A graduate of the National Art School (NAS) in Sydney with a Bachelor of Fine Art, she uses this process to create paper-thin, translucent surfaces. When pieces shatter in the kiln, she repairs them using the Japanese art of kintsugi, transforming breakage into golden seams that celebrate imperfection – turning waste into beauty and reframing damage as resilience.
VVREN
Activated as a singular experiential offering, open only after dark, the space inverts the conventions of the white cube, privileging atmosphere over display and encounter over observation. Light, shadow and presence shape the space as much as the works themselves.VVREN operates as a commune rather than a static gallery, where emerging and established artists engage in process in real time alongside the public, testing ideas that resist easy articulation.Here, fracture becomes dialogue, uncertainty becomes method, and thinking does not resolve – it expands, unsettles and continues.