Beneath the fragile is a project inspired both by the ancient Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi, where beauty is seen in the imperfections and in the acceptance of the transience in life, as well as by the symbolism of Kintsugi Pottery, where something broken can be fixed and not discarded, made more beautiful than before. I felt compelled to examine the sense of loss, so as to embrace the process of ageing, accepting my own fragility by exploring body and mind. The need to delve further into this theme was heightened when my mother died, as it made me more aware of my own mortality and the passing of time.

This project is made up of a series of diptychs. I am represented by the subject, juxtaposing her youthful body with the marks of aging inscribed upon it, to convey my struggle. The flower portraits reiterate the transience of life and the beauty in the everyday, so often overlooked. The cut flowers which are short-lived, demonstrate their own beauty in aging, it is a further reminder of the temporality to be found both in nature and in life.

My project feels so relevant to modern day lifestyles, with social media encouraging a distorted quest for eternal youth and contrived beauty. In contrast, my project is a quest for accepting and seeing the intrinsic beauty in the natural process of the changing body through the passage of time