Tidal Wave: Joshua Searle on the Intimacy of a Pearl

A pearl is never just a pearl.
Formed slowly through patience and pressure, it becomes a natural metaphor for love — an idea Joshua Searle explores in his works for our latest exhibition, Tidal Wave.

In this conversation, Joshua speaks to us about scaling down from large, immersive installations to the intimate surface of a single pearl, and reflects on how histories of extraction, trade and colonial desire — themes long present in his practice — resurface even in a material this small. What emerges is a meditation on materials that are never neutral, and on love as something practised daily, rather than possessed.

PO8: In Indigenous Colombian cosmology, gold was the sweat of the sun, not a commodity but a connection to the divine. Pearls carry their own ancient sacred symbolism across cultures. When you picked up the pearl, what did you feel you were holding?

JS: When I held the pearl, I wasn’t thinking about luxury or value. I was thinking about love as something that is accumulated over time. A pearl is formed through patience, care and persistence — qualities that mirror the way relationships are built. Like gold in Indigenous Colombian cosmology, the pearl becomes more than a precious material; it carries the potential to hold memory, belief and devotion.

Painting the word amor onto each pearl transformed it into a small vessel for that idea. It became less about adornment and more about carrying a reminder. Something worn close to the body that quietly asks the wearer to choose love each day. In that sense, I was holding not just a pearl, but a gesture — a belief that to love is one of the most powerful things we can do.

PO8: Working on an object this small and this precious, was there tension between that expansive, expressive instinct and the intimacy of the scale?

JS: There was definitely a tension between my instinct to work expansively and the small scale of the pearl. Much of my practice deals with large gestures, immersive installations and objects that carry a physical presence, so reducing an idea to the surface of a pearl requires a different kind of attention.

Rather than viewing the small scale as a limitation, I came to understand it as a form of concentration. Every brushstroke mattered, and the word 'amor' had to hold the emotional weight of the work. Jewellery also lives differently to painting or sculpture. It is worn against the body, carried through everyday life, becoming part of someone’s rituals and relationships.

That intimacy felt fitting for a work about love. It didn’t need to announce itself loudly. Instead, it could exist as a quiet reminder that love is something we choose and practise every day. In that way, the scale became inseparable from the meaning of the work.

Examples of Searle's other works from his studio

PO8: Historically your practice has returned again and again to objects that were taken — museum artefacts, stolen gold. A pearl is also an object with a complex history of extraction, trade, and colonial desire. Did that history surface for you?

JS: Absolutely. While this work shifts away from directly referencing stolen gold or museum collections, I was still conscious that pearls, like gold, carry layered histories of extraction, trade and desire. They have travelled across cultures as symbols of status, wealth and beauty, often becoming entangled in colonial economies. That history inevitably surfaced as I worked, reminding me that materials are never neutral — they carry the weight of the stories attached to them. 

In many ways, that reflects a broader thread throughout my practice. I’m interested in how objects accumulate meaning over time, and how they can be reclaimed from histories of ownership, extraction or display. Here, the pearl becomes less a symbol of possession and more a reminder that love is something we give away rather than hold onto.

Visit us in our Melbourne CBD Gallery to experience Joshua Searle's 'To Love is Power' baroque pearl earrings. The sculpture he has made to accompany the works is also available for purchase.
Tidal Wave is now showing until August 29, 2026.

Photograph of exhibition install by Michael Pham.