Shoulder Replacement – Mrs. Bjerk, Holland Houdek

Metalsmith Holland Houdek has partnered extensively with the medical industry, including the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, MedWish International, and the Cleveland Clinic. As a result of these collaborations, Houdek recognizes the ways that medical implants save lives, but she also acknowledges that there are many who cannot access these treatments. As part of her series Of a Particular Kind, Houdek uses painstaking hand-fabrication techniques and intricate—rather than purely functional—forms to explore tensions between the well-publicized benefits of medical technologies and the unseen challenges that billions of people worldwide face in securing them. These implants seek to personalize the hardship, devastation, and futility that so many face in their efforts to improve their lives through medical intervention. The names in the titles refer to fictional patients the artist imagined, inspired by her own friends and families and stories told by people who have received implants themselves.