FRAGILITY
Cindy Zhaohan-Li
United Kingdom

Growth 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 intertwining gestures into generative forms that link the virtual and the tactile, the crafted and the personal. By inputting a single body scar as a growth line, each piece evolves into an auspicious jewellery form. The code translates stretch marks, growth lines, and traces of maternity into ornaments of grace, each a mark of fragility and renewal. Designed to echo the skin’s flexibility, every piece can be folded and expanded when worn, mirroring how scars often appear near joints where the body bends and heals. Inspired by my mother’s postpartum marks and my own adolescent growth lines, painful yet vital, these wearable forms embody emotional elasticity, tracing the balance between tenderness and endurance. Growth Ribbon celebrates fragility not as weakness, but as the quiet strength of healing and life’s persistence.

Brooch « Growth Ribbon Brooch », 2022
218x150x30 mm / gr
Sterling Silver
Algorithmic design, 3D wax print, lost-wax cast, metal riveting, soldering, polishing

Necklace « Growth Ribbon Necklace », 2022
200x174x18 mm / gr
Sterling Silver
Algorithmic design, 3D wax print, lost-wax cast, metal riveting, soldering, oxidation finish

More « FRAGILITY »

Fragility – Keith Lewis – USA

FRAGILITYKeith LewisUnited StatesThe Saddest Aisle Consider the Saddest Aisle, that mass of forlorn, abandoned baskets huddled together at the thrift store. In their puppy-eyed, earnest yearning they exude an almost hilarious melancholy. And they long for a new home....

Fragility – Joshua Kosker / USA

FRAGILITYJoshua KoskerUnited States This brooch is an exploration of time, place, and the residue of human existence. One of its components—a fragment of tile found in the ruins of Pompeii—speaks to the fragility of ancient civilizations and the lasting imprint of...

Fragility – Marissa Saneholtz – USA

FRAGILITYMarissa SaneholtzUnited StatesIn this artwork I am referencing one of the historic purposes for enamels, to mimic gemstones and make color in jewelry more accessible while also considering the function of jewelry as a symbol of economic status. How much is...

Fragility – Danni Xu / USA

FRAGILITYDanni XuUnited StatesThis body of work emerges from a personal moment of reckoning—where fragility was not an abstract idea, but a lived, shifting condition I needed to face. These pieces trace the intimate terrain of vulnerability: the quiet, unstable edges...

Fragility – Jeannette Knigge / Netherlands

FRAGILITYJeannette KniggeNetherlandsWithin the theme of Performing Identity, I have created various body-related objects; each object highlights a different part of our daily performance. Fragility is often perceived as weakness, yet in my work it becomes a space of...

Fragility – Namkyung Lee / South Korea

FRAGILITYNamkyung LeeSouth KoreaThe plate engraved with photographic images serves as a mold that forms a single surface (or wall). On top of this, Jesmonite (an acrylic resin) is poured to cast the photographic image. The photographic image plate created in this way...

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 – 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 – 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 – Beatrice Carlson / New Zealand

FRAGILITYBeatrice CarlsonNew ZealandHow do we refer to Fragility and how do we feel about it in our, somehow, judgemental, competitive society? Looking at synonyms, there is nothing positive about it: delicate, brittle, frail, weak, tenuous. Fragility is what some...