Series “Supports,” “The Cane That Needs Care”

These are sculptural amulets, dedicated to the theme of support and fragility. They were created by casting from real crutches and a cane that once supported the body of the artist’s beloved. A body that needed support itself became an image of family strength — yet also of strength that is inevitably exhausted.

The sculptures appear monumental, yet their material — polyester resin — is more fragile than glass. It has no frame or reinforcement, only vulnerable dried flowers within. The flowers are as brittle and aged as the body of a grandmother-healer who was a lifelong support for her family. In their fragility one reads the experience of generations: even those who sustained others are themselves in need of support.

The crutches and cane are wrapped with bandages at the points of fracture. These are the same bandages once used to wrap the limbs of the beloved, the father of the child. The bandages became not only a medical gesture, but also a sign of care, of home-based healing, of extending life within the intimacy of family.

“The Cane That Needs Care” are a symbol of all that holds us when we can no longer stand: a fragile support sustained not by the strength of material, but by the power of memory, care, and collective survival.