Bringing east and west together
- She combines western art with Chinese philosophy
- One inspiration is the age rings of trees
- She is never bored by the repetitive process of her work
At first, when deciding what to do at university, Nan Nan Liu thought that accountancy was a good idea, but a year into her degree she realised that her childhood passion – taking her mother’s jewellery apart and rebuilding it to her own designs – was what she really dreamed of doing. She moved from Luo Yang, China, to England where she attended a foundation course at Dudley College and perfected her skills with two great masters, John Bartholomew and Malcom Appleby. Now, her work – objets d’art and accessories made from layers and layers of paper and silver and “a lot of soldering” – is inspired by nature: the age rings in trees, the forms that water can take, hair and even smoke.
Interview
- When did you discover your artistic side?
- When I was young I always loved making pieces with my hands and reinterpreting my mother’s jewellery by adding things, bringing my own character to the objects. But it was really the foundation course which opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of working with different materials.
- What's your process?
- Paper gives me a good idea of what kind of shape I can achieve in wire. So I build layers in paper first, and then in silver. I love the working process and after many hours of making layers, I really enjoy seeing the shapes and patterns I have created.
- What informs your shapes and patterns?
- My inspiration is very basic: nature and anything that takes time to grow. But my work also has a Chinese aesthetic. I learned art and design in Britain, so I was pretty much like an unwritten book, but because I arrived in England when I was 20, Chinese culture and philosophy are in my blood.
- How does Chinese philosophy influence you?
- It makes me very patient and never bored by the repetitiveness of what I do. You can’t be good at something if you only do it once. This is a concept I learned when my mum made me practise calligraphy for hours and hours, and it's a concept I find very helpful when I’m layering my forms.
Nan Nan Liu is a master artisan: she began her career in 2008 and she started teaching in 2013
Where
Nan Nan Liu
