FRAGILITY
Eiko Nakahara
Japan

Things 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 natural disasters in recent years makes us keenly aware of human powerlessness in various forms.
Here, I believe we must pause and consider what it means to be “fragile and weak.” A fragile house, for instance, is simply one susceptible to external forces like earthquakes or storms. Likewise, the human heart cannot help but be wounded by another’s unexpected words. The “fragility of the human heart” is nothing other than an inability to close one’s ears to others’ words, a state of being open to others against one’s own will. I believe “fragility” is a state where one’s very existence is exposed to the outside world.

Brooch « Wavering-Heart-1 », 2025
110×30×20 mm / 19 gr
Silver950, Stainless steel spring wire
Openwork
Photo : Shion-Kizuki

Brooch « Wavering-Heart-2 », 2025
110×30×20 mm / 19 gr
Silver950, Stainless steel spring wire
Openwork
Photo : Shion-Kizuki

More « FRAGILITY »

Fragility – Anne Blok / Netherlands

FRAGILITYAnne BlokNetherlandsThe fragile threads of memory Life is fragile; it is temporary and precious. This brooch tells the story of a young life, life in the bud and the rose that never reached full bloom. The brooch tells the story of a thirteen year-old girl....

Fragility – Sareh Zarghampour / Belgium

FRAGILITYSareh ZarghampourBelgiumWe give pain meaning through the moments we live with it. I explore pain not merely as a physical reaction, but as an emotional, internal state something deeply tied to human fragility. Pain is a personal and often invisible...

Fragility – Barbara Schwager / Switzerland

FRAGILITY Barbara SchwagerSwitzerlandFragile 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...

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 – Kamile Staneliene / Lithuania

FRAGILITYKamile StanelieneLithuaniaSometimes in life, we face moments when we feel completely shattered and broken inside. There are times when we manage to stand up on our own and piece ourselves back together after difficult experiences, and other times when we need...

Fragility – Einav Benzano / France

FRAGILITYEinav BenzanoFranceThis project contemplates HOME as a fragile talisman — a place that shelters and soothes, yet trembles with vulnerability and uncertainty. The pieces are made from mop floorcloth, a material that unravels thread by thread when touched. To...

Fragility – Yasuko Kanno / Japan

FRAGILITYYasuko KannoJapanEven the most perfectly formed creation will one day perish. Glass and ceramics will shatter, metal will rust, and every living being will eventually face death. Although it often happens unexpectedly, in reality, it is predetermined from the...

Fragility – Aimee Howard-Clinger / USA

FRAGILITYAimee Howard-ClingerUnited StatesFragments 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...

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 – Brenda Schweder / USA

FRAGILITYBrenda SchwederUnited StatesPeople tip-toe around fragility like it’s a brittle, frail state of weakness that seeps from the outer skin of a thing and travels through and through to the core. But they don’t stop to look beneath the outer edges to what lie...