Shape of Nature. Selected Artist Documentary 2021

Nature is the source of inspiration for all design. Whether it is the ancient jade cultures of ancient Asia, the mask art of primitive Africa, the feather decorative style of indigenous America or the metalwork of classical Europe, the decorative design themes used are all inseparable from nature. Man was born from nature and is a part of it, and his existence and development has transformed it. From the initial imitation of nature and the analysis of nature based on scientific research, to the conscious creation of new images of nature. From the direct artistic reproduction of natural objects to the introduction of knowledge linked to the notion of human competence, all reflect the fact that nature, which embraces all things, is the source of all art, and the aspiration of life that jewellery seeks to pursue. Based on this, the video includes the harmony between man and nature, as well as the destruction of nature, but all the designs are derived from nature and, in the words of the five judges, call for awareness of the importance of nature to mankind.

Human beings are a part of nature, therefore everything we create is a Shape of Nature. Nature is everywhere: in the food we eat, outside in a garden or in “wild nature”, but also in the form of designs, with the forces of natures as the benchmark. Almost all shapes that people use can be found in nature. Nature guides us to dream and imagine using the ancient felt and intuited language of wonder, connection, trust and awe. She amplifies all of the body’s senses, turns myth into reality, and reflects back to us our true selves. Body adornment becomes a sentience of its one-connective, a bridge; a curious communication from the unheard, unseen and unknown realms of nature’s enigma that can be used to solve the labyrinthine mystery of oneself. Nature has many forms, many faces. She is harsh, scary, sometimes even cruel. But she can also be full of charm, beauty and wisdom. She is vast but accurate, even in the smallest details. Nature has the power to take us to a place of peace and imagination. The connection between jewelry and nature is inseparable, both in terms of materiality and inspiration, but also in terms of design solutions - whether it is for the objects as a whole or the mechanism within it. We are nature ourselves and inseparable from our environment and origin. Humanity cannot exist without nature and it is time we realized that.

> Click here to check the exhibited artist list and more information

Producer: Zepei Zang
Art Director: Herman Sun

Special Acknowledgement Jury Team
Ariel Lavian (Israel)
Juan Riusech (France)
Kim Nogueira (Usvi)
Maja Houtman (Netherlands)
Supavee Sirinkraporn (Thailand)
Taizen Wada (Japan)

Ariel Lavian:
Shape of nature for me is first of all about nature, about a wonderful ambiguity, about the feeling that I get. When I’m walking through the forest in my house when I’m at the beach. It makes me can feel more relaxed and calmer. And I try to bring that feeling inside the studio, into my objects, and into the process behind the objects.
 
Maja Houtman:
Shape of nature has two meanings to me. Of course the literally shape of nature. We are part of nature. We use it as if we can’t live without it. But we are part of this big thing. We need each other. And that shape of nature is really worrying me.
 
Supavee Sirinkraporn:
According to archaeological and anthropological evidence, it can be assumed that jewellery is one of the very ways men use to represent their sense of beauty and to build their relationship with community and surroundings. The most important thing is the purpose of the jewellery which is to worship scared souls of nature and self by using body to drive internal context. The feelings we have from the touches of jewellery we have worn for so long, in the form of worship with pure hearts, make us learn and improve. Those feelings are still the basis which people or artist like us should praise, even forms and values might be changed due to cultural changes. The feelings remain along with the essence of the universe of jewellery. It created to worship the scared souls of nature, using the body to shine the internal context on the balanced state of time and place.
 
Taizen Wada:
Francis Bacon said that art homo adieus natural. This means human beings are a part of nature, therefore everything we create is a Shape of Nature. According to that theory, for example, we humans recognize that beehives made by bees are beautiful shape made by nature. Similarly, we can think of everything as having a Shape of Nature, including environmentally harmful products such as human-made plastic products.
 
Juan Riusech:
Nature is perfect, every of its elements has a role to play. In the human body, the heart is the main part of this nature. It gives life when it beats, or dead when it stops. Heart beating is a controlled and constant movement. This control trends to be altered when an emotion arises, positive or negative. Sometimes the alteration is extremely high and triggers a heart attack with sometimes a non-expected end.

Kim Nogueira:
Nature encourages me to inhabit the lining spaces of myself, the edges, the periphery where my borders are. Her ancient wisdom permeates and then dissolves these illusion boundaries. The veil is lifted and I become a threshold. In the place of no time, the place of all histories and conjunctions. I am a part of the magic that is always unfolding around me. Our living breathing and evolving Mother Earth, my own being is animated by the sentience of her nature elemental. Earth, fire, air and water are my body, breath, spirit and blood.


Sponsors
Alliages Gallery (France)
Beijing Design Week (China)
China Gems (China)
Dbc International Art And Design Center (China)
Diamonds District (China)
Ip Of Gems And Jewellery Design Committee (China)
Lianyun3d Metal Product Co.,Ltd (China)
Moomad Inc (United States)
Mouts Brother Cultural Communication Co.,Ltd (China)
Slipakorn University Faculty Of Decorative Arts (Thailand)
Shanghai Qianhe Culture And Art Development Co.,Ltd (China)
Uruguay Embassy Of China