Jeannelise Edelsten, ‘Cracked Plate’, Etching inks, casting slip, on handmade paper, May 2009. Photo: Jeannelise Edelsten. Courtesy: Jeannelise Edelsten. My work this year has been based on studying ‘cracks’. They have become a metaphor for the passing of time and the transience of life but the realisation that nothing is perfect and this imperfection should be celebrated ? the crack becomes beautiful and shows our history. This work is a representation of a French plate commemorating the French revolution, and as a French National this past history helps me make sense of the present.