FRAGILITY
Galit Barak
Israel

The artworks feature red gravel stones arranged on a mesh net facing inwards. These stones were sourced from the area of Al-Kunayyisa, an Arab village that was occupied and ethnically cleansed in 1948. Today, the village’s ruins are difficult to locate, as they are surrounded by an industrial area.
Fragility emerges here as both material and emotional. The red gravel: small, breakable fragments, rests on a delicate mesh that barely holds their weight, echoing the precarious balance of coexistence and memory. This fragile structure mirrors the vulnerability of personal and collective narratives: how they can crumble or be rebuilt, how acknowledging the other’s pain exposes our own. The work embodies the fragile act of seeing, of allowing empathy to unsettle certainty and open the boundaries of belonging.
This piece from an ongoing series shifts the focus to explore new, fragile, but also joined narratives, to create a space to hold both narratives and opens up the possibility to reimagine a new future for living on the land.

Brooch « You Are Not Allowed To Hold All The Sorrow », 2024
27x43x260 mm / 28 gr
Stainless steel, gravel stones, sterling silver, cotton thread
Assembled

More « FRAGILITY »

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 – 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 – Babette von Dohnanyi / Germany

FRAGILITYBabette von DohnanyiGermanyThis piece talks about our identity, how fragile we are, our look in our individual face, our acceptance about ourselves. The research of ourselves all way deep but also never secure.Brooch "hello", 20237x7x2,5cm mm / 250,00 grAG...

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...

Fragility – Sébastien Carré / France

FRAGILITYSébastien CarréFranceFragility of… The Cycle of Water From the melting of the poles, to changing the power of the gulfstream We are already starting to feel the impact of global warming with an increased power and frequency of rain and snowstorms.While...

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 – Malene Kastalje / Denmark

FRAGILITYMalene KastaljeDenmarkIt was after the storm. I watched myself in the brown puddle of water. Unrecognizable. A cloud moved behind me. A bit of wind and the surface trembled, scattering my face and folding it into small, moving pieces. The ground was still...

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 – 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 – 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...