The same age inside

This article explores the concept of fragility through the works of David Lynch and Donna McLean, focusing on their depictions of impermanence and the act of freezing fleeting moments. Lynch’s photobook Snowmen captures the ephemeral nature of childhood and memory, immortalizing snowmen before they dissolve. McLean’s Boom freezes moments of atomic destruction, holding the beauty and devastation of explosions in stilled, miniature paintings. Both artists focus on what is left unsaid, withholding the aftermath of their subjects and inviting the viewer to consider the absence as much as the presence. In a personal reflection, the article connects these ideas to the author’s sentimental attachment to a soft toy, Ted , which has remained a constant presence through the various stages of her life. This parallel highlights the human desire to hold onto moments and memories, to pause the inevitable passage of time. Through Lynch and McLean’s works and the object of Ted , the article examines how fragility, in both emotional and physical terms, is captured and preserved, offering a meditation on loss, memory and the impossibility of permanence.