FRAGILITY
Aimee Howard-Clinger
United States

Fragments explores the fragility of culture and identity amid the fractures of political unrest. In recent years, escalating intolerance and prejudice—expressed through divisive rhetoric and acts of violence—have revealed how delicate our shared social fabric truly is.

These wearable sculptures embody that fragility through forms that appear fractured, broken, and isolated—remnants of something once whole. Each patterned fragment is reinforced with cement and small architectural remnants, evoking material pulled from rubble. This merging of destruction and beauty reflects our collective precarious existence—how easily what connects us can be shattered, yet how resilience and repair remain possible through awareness, empathy, and care.

Brooch « Fragments », 2025
78 x 50 x 15 mm / 200 gr
Silver, Copper, Enamel, Cement, Steel Pinback
Hand fabrication, enameling, casting

More « FRAGILITY »

Fragility – Cindy Zhaohan Li / UK

FRAGILITYCindy Zhaohan-LiUnited KingdomGrowth Ribbon reflects on fragility as a generative state, where pain, transformation, and renewal coexist in the human body. I programmed the Tibetan Auspicious Ribbon Patterns into digital algorithms, transforming their...

Fragility – Agnes WO / Spain

FRAGILITYAgnes WOSpain“At the beginning there is nothing. Then comes a deep void, and beyond it, a blue depth.” These words, drawn from Bachelard’s L’air et les songes and embraced by Yves Klein in Le Vide (1958), open the path for my two pieces. Both arise from the...

Fragility – Anna Talbot / Norway

FRAGILITYAnna TalbotNorwayMy two brooches; Up Yours! and Two Fingers Up! are made from two old Vaseline containers, the Vaseline used up, smeared on dry lips, used in private places, with personal gestures. They're decorated with ornaments, colours and look almost...

Fragility – Patricia Gallucci / Argentina

FRAGILITYPatricia GallucciArgentinaHow do we move forward; how do we leave fear, memories, untold, everyday anxieties, if we are made out of them, if we keep them under our skin, if they are also part of today? When body and mind are one. Light is darkness Dream,...

Fragility – Elvira Cibotti / Argentina

FRAGILITYElvira CibottiArgentinaScars Wrinkle, tear, fold, break. When we hurt ourselves, it will undoubtedly result in a mark. Acknowledging and accepting those wounds is the first step to heal, to gather strength. Not only do the scars, the damage, speak of the...

Fragility – Isabelle Busnel / France

FRAGILITYIsabelle BusnelFranceThis work looks at fragility through two brooches made from broken jewellery found in flea markets. Each piece is partly lost and incomplete, set in soft silicone and stitched with light punch needle embroidery. The pale blue and pink...

Fragility – Cristina Celis / Mexico

FRAGILITYCristina CelisMexicoThe Last BreathFragility is the threshold where strength meets its limit, where existence reveals its most honest form.This work, made from weightless paper-thin ceramics, evokes a paradox: delicate yet tense, resilient yet on the verge of...

Fragility – Ute van der Plaats / Belgium

FRAGILITYUte van der PlaatsBelgiumMy mother was born as a Berglanddeutsche, a German-speaking minority living in the Banat, a region that belongs to Romania since the end of the First World War. In 1944 the family fled from the Russian invasion to Germany. I never got...

Fragility – Yifan Peng / Belgium

FRAGILITYYifan PengBelgiumThis series is inspired by the structure of cicada wings and focuses on the contrast between fragility and strength. I am interested in how light, material, and form can reveal both stability and vulnerability at the same time. I use smoke to...

Fragility – Juan Harnie / Belgium

FRAGILITYJuan HarnieBelgiumAs a child, I watched my mother repair our worn clothes. My small hands would clumsily try to help, threading needles or guiding the iron. These moments were never about perfection, but about connection. Each patch, each stitch was an act of...