Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. MFA Degree show 2021

"Eternal Memory" is a piece of mourning jewelry which the artist made for his family using materials that belonged to the deceased. A top, a needle and thread, and a medicine bottle are three interweaving metaphors that symbolize three important life stages of the deceased. The top has lost its spindle and is unable to spin, the bandage symbolizes the twisted memories of her childhood, the thimble that symbolizes family is connected to the needle and thread to form an electrocardiogram that is flatlining. The hair, tied in a ponytail, is placed in a medicine bottle together with the family letter, to be a bottle that drifts through life and death. These three parts are combined to commemorate the life of the deceased.
This artwork uses the form of mourning jewelry in order express loss and absence and attain psychological balance. It seeks to contemplate the eternal nature of life, hopes for the soul to transcend physical life despite unbearable pain and the helplessness of losing loved ones. During the process of creation, the artist transfers his emotional dependence upon loved ones to this work.
 

On his way to class one day, the artist happened to look at the bark of a roadside tree and was instantly inspired, so he started collecting bark and created this jewelry series. Bark protects and transports nutrients. It is constantly depleted and finally stripped off and abandoned. This struck the artist as a metaphor for a mother’s love—sacrificial giving, so he created a nerve-like form, using the idea of bark nourishing pine cones to convey motherly love. It is precisely the impact of ancient, lively, and small sentiments that will overcome psychological and physical consolations.

My graduation project is a continuation of the theme I created in my second year of graduate school, "Plastic Surgery." After I opened a mussel and personally removed a pearl, I considered the industry of pearl farming and associated it with the surgery people undergo to implant their bodies with an external object for the purpose of beauty. These thoughts led to a series of jewelry pieces.