the beauty of imperfection: an ode to cat scratch embroidery
Visible mending, embroidery
Vienna, 2023
This piece is a quiet celebration of the beauty that comes from living with others — and all the little messes that come with it. The scratched-up couch, mended with colorful thread, and the lamp shade, embroidered where tiny teeth once tugged, aren’t about damage or repair. They’re about stories. About sharing space.
These marks were left by a cat — doing what cats do. As Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote, “Animals do neither good nor evil… They do as they must do. We're yoked, and they're free.”
Instead of hiding the scratches or smoothing things over, this work leans into them. Every thread is a way of saying: I see you. I live with you. And I’m okay with things being a little frayed. It's about turning the small wear-and-tear of daily life into something soft, beautiful, and shared.
This is a piece about coexisting — not perfectly, but honestly. About finding meaning in the mess. And maybe even a little freedom, in letting go of control.
Team: Dila Demircan Özer and Ginger Bread
