Behind Tears - Sheffield Hallam University

Project

Jewellery Materials and Design

Undergraduate

Project

Kelly Luo

Behind Tears

Jewellery Materials and Design

Undergraduate

Emotional Catalyst

Silver. We need to learn to live with whatever emotions we have, rather than snuffing out bad emotions when we find them sprouting. When we truly accept our painful emotions, the bad emotions will disappear on their own, just as they did at the beginning when they appeared. This piece uses a needle, an object that most people are afraid of, to stimulate a meltdown, as if relaxing after a good cry, to dissolve and regulate the bad emotions that should be released.

Keeping the Balance

Silver, steel, plastic pearl. Emotions affect every cell in the body and can even affect our health. What we need to do is not to suppress negative emotions, but to balance them all. It is because emotions are in control of each other that we can feel the consequences of our emotions. Cherish your down time because you will see many truths that you would not otherwise see. So let's reconcile ourselves with our emotions and let them be the driving force behind our growth. In the old West, they considered pearls to be a symbol of tears, especially in the shape of teardrops. One of the Western sayings is that these 'weeping pearls' from the mermaid, the sea or the gods will take away the bride's tears and lead her into a happy, 'tear-free' married life. This is also the meaning of the pearls in my work.

Emotional Storage Rooms

Silver. In Luo's series of works there are many different shaped containers - tear collectors - in other words, people's emotional storage rooms. What is in the storeroom must be considered important and useful, and the reason why tears are held in containers rather than being evaporated in the air or wiped away with tissues is because they are precious. As herds animals living in a world of constant human interaction, we need to put on different masks in order to cope with the various things in our lives. We also need some private space to let go of our emotions. The Container here is like a little box for secrets. All emotions should not be packed away and thrown away like rubbish, but more often than not, we look back and realise that these painful emotions have helped us to grow.

Tear collector-Moss

Plastic, Silver. Nourishment means providing nutrients. For plants, sunlight enables photosynthesis for natural energy conversion and maintains the carbon-oxygen balance of the atmosphere. Water plays a major role in the survival of plants. Moss happens to like a moist environment and requires a high level of humidity during its growth, generally maintaining a humidity level above 80% is best. The excretion of tears has a beneficial effect on the body, but the substances excreted in tears can be altered by emotions. The 'nourishment' expressed in this work is not only the biological definition of moisture for the moss, but also the guiding value of human emotions and feelings. This slow reflection on oneself is like watching a plant grow with anticipation and longing. For people, tears are witnesses to growth.

Kelly Luo

Behind Tears

Through the relationship between jewellery and the human body, Kelly Luo expresses how emotions can serve people. What was the last time you cried? Tears are a symbol that has a universal meaning around the world, and humans share a common language of emotional expression. As the most obvious way of expressing our emotions, can we fully accept it as part of who we are?

Based on the state and process of crying when we are sad, the tear collector acts as a carrier of emotions and releases this emotional signal to the outside world. The process of transforming tears into moss-nourishing material is in fact a process of transforming invisible energy into the emotional visualisation of a 3D object and thinking about how this visualisation affects the changes in our surroundings.

Through the work of Luo, we learn to accept all our emotions, including chaos and breakdown, so that we can feel what it means to be human again, to feel our innermost being, and to reap the rewards of growth. Every failure and negative emotion is seen as an aid to growth, and it is important to find a suitable outlet and a way for it to come and go naturally. Tears as an expression of emotion act as a bonding agent in society and as a healing agent in life. This act of using one’s own production to create and experience as a vehicle for communication, and for finding oneself and gaining enlightenment, also demonstrates that art can heal the body and mind.

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