Pear Studies: Acts of Holding #3

Notes

"Pear Studies: Acts of Holding explores the ways in which acts of holding shape our relationships with objects and one another. Holding can comfort, support, and preserve, yet it may also restrain, compress, or leave a mark. This paradox lies at the heart of jewellery, where attachment is achieved through piercing. Every brooch depends upon a pin that both secures and penetrates, making care inseparable from vulnerability. Inspired by Scott Fraser's still-life paintings of wounded pears, the series uses the pear as a surrogate body through which to examine these tensions.

Bruises, tears, enamelled wounds and bandages evoke fragility, resilience and repair, inviting empathy while challenging ideals of perfection. Rather than depicting injury alone, the work considers how acts of holding, whether physical, emotional or material, shape the body and leave lasting traces.

Unlike Fraser's paintings, where the pin exists only as an image, the brooch collapses representation and function. The same mechanism that appears to wound the pear is physically present and required to wear the work. The brooch therefore does not simply represent injury; it reenacts the condition it depicts.

The series proposes that jewellery is a relational practice. It negotiates intimacy through attachment, care through contact, and reveals that every act of holding leaves its trace."

Statement by Dr Joani Groenewald, 2026

Influenced by: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil by Scott Fraser; St. Sebastian by Scott Fraser