FRAGILITY

Barbara Schwager
Switzerland

Fragile Moods
Moods come and go. They are subject to fluctuations and external influences. We cannot always control them in our favour—in other words, “just be happy.” Only we ourselves know how we feel—and often we have to present a different, socially acceptable version of ourselves to the outside world. We cannot simply live out our moods.

This brooch turns our inner feelings inside out. Recognizing and accepting our own changeability, even playing with it and perhaps engaging in a dialogue with those around us about our own true feelings.

Brooch « Fragile Moods », 2025
60x59x6 mm / 28 gr
Mild and stainless steel, Stone paper, polypropylene, Hematin, Poly n thread, copper, silver tubes
Sawing, filing, piercing, folding (copper, stone paper, polypropylene)

More « FRAGILITY »

Fragility – Alicia Salcedo / Spain

FRAGILITYAlicia SalcedoSpainProtecting ourselves, seeking refuge, the shell as armor, as protection, as home.The shell that once sheltered its own life now collects a foreign element. A being that occupies an empty space previously inhabited. But it also wears away,...

Fragility – Amertah E. Perman / USA

FRAGILITYAmertah E. PermanUnited StatesMade in response to the exhibition theme, this piece provides the wearer ready access to tissues – a tissue when you need it.The vintage floral fabric mimics both the modern American floral tissue box (standard grocery store...

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 – Eiko Nakahara / Japan

FRAGILITYEiko NakaharaJapanThings we believed would never break often turn out to be fragile, brittle, and weak. We sometimes find beauty in broken objects or ruins. Yet even if we perceive life and beauty in fragile, weak things, witnessing the scenes of frequent...

Fragility – Denis Music / Ukraine

FRAGILITYDenis MusicUkraineFragility is a state of tension — between strength and collapse, between freedom and threat, between life and its disappearance. My brooch Black Cloud was inspired by the installation of Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Sai, which rose above the...

Fragility – Sayaka Ito / Japan

FRAGILITYSayaka ItoJapanFragility is the beauty of existing things and lives. Fragile, therefore, there is strength, there is care. All our souls are fragile; thus, we unite, we love. May acceptance of fragility in our lives bring better things to our world.Brooch...

Fragility – Lin Stanionis / USA

FRAGILITYLin StanionisUnited StatesFragility can be described as the condition of being delicate or vulnerable. The works submitted for this exhibition embody these characteristics in their forms and associative meanings. In the work, “Seed of Temptation”,...

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 – 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 – Agne Zaltauskaite / Lithuania

FRAGILITYAgne ZaltauskaiteLithuaniaIn my practice, I explore the hole as a metaphor for the unknown — a fragile space where certainty dissolves. To be within the unknown is to be exposed, vulnerable, and open to transformation.Not knowing, doubting, being uncertain —...