Inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Valentine, 'Heart' draws upon the poem’s metaphor of the onion as an object of love, to explore experiences of heartbreak, transformation, and healing. In the work, the onion is pierced repeatedly with sewing pins, a gesture that attempts to articulate in visual and material form the pain of heartbreak. The act of piercing becomes symbolic and extends the concepts within the poem of onions making you cry when cut, and having many ringed layers, "it will shrink to a wedding ring if you like".

The work was taken a step further through the decision to have the onion X-rayed at a hospital. This process documents the object’s inherent ephemerality, while also revealing an interior otherwise hidden from view. The X-ray image draws attention to an internalised emotional state that sits in tension with the work’s outward appearance: a bejewelled and sparkling surface that both conceals and frames the vulnerability contained within.