“How to make people pay attention to the connection between art, design and life through contemporary Jewellery design? How to combine man made traces with the natural environment, and can the art of artificial processing imitate natural colours and textures? How do different artists combine nature and man-made? How to help people understand the surrounding natural environment through this project, have humans “protected” nature while also “destroying” the environment?”
Jiayu Liu has explored the relationship between nature and man-made, as the difference between restraint and protection. Made objects and natural products are both indispensable parts of human life and Liu’s project understands and controls the degree of ‘restraint’ and ‘protection’ through representing the transformation of natural to manufactured objects as fences and walls, here displayed on the human body as jewellery. She says: “when people are injured, they will use plaster and wood to help heal limbs. When certain trees need protection or help to grow, people will also use railings and fences (plastic, metal, wood) to protect the trees. A large part of the beauty of human design comes from nature, which combines many natural environments in real life.”