The brooches were created in October 2023. The encounter between the cold, sharp metal and the olive branch – a living material that holds within it the potential to break, distort, and change – emerged almost on its own. The symbolic meanings surface naturally in this meeting of strength and vulnerability, loss and hope.
The work continues to change and carries the marks of time: a memory of what once was and a testimony to all that endures. It offers a renewed reflection on the reality that has formed – a layered space holding within it memory, rupture and repair, transience and security – and raises questions of identity and the values that shape us, both as individuals and as a society.