Danyan Liu
About
Danyan Liu has a keen interest in the relationship between environment, culture and humanity. As an artist from a Chinese cultural background, she explores the use of traditional oriental textile techniques to express her understanding of oriental philosophies within a contemporary narrative. She specialises in hand embroidery, hand drawing, screen printing, hand dye and digital print. She completed her undergraduate studies in textile(print) design at Chelsea College of Art.
AWARDS
-PriestmanGoode x RCA Colour Material and Finish Design - Finalist (2020)
SPONSORS
-Huzhou Changhe Silk Mill, China
Statement
Renew // Ruins and Growth
Renewing ruins by growing plants.
Renewing traditional techniques via a contemporary concept.
Reinforced concrete buildings are generally considered indestructible. However, without maintenance, they can completely collapse within 150 years. I enjoy witnessing the changes that man-made things like buildings undergo as they become ‘naturalised’, that is, brought into conformity with nature. In the face of nature, which can always heal itself, human power is insignificant; hence, as humans, we should rethink our relationship with nature.
I have specialised in traditional Chinese textile techniques, such as Chinese embroidery and Ronghua, as my main methods, using natural traditional Chinese materials, such as silk, as my main materials, harmonising contemporary concepts and Oriental philosophies to illustrate scenes of contradiction: ruin and growth, life and decay. These designs will work in urban public spaces in order to help urbanites relax and draw a greater emphasis to the circle of life.
Ruins and Growth
Showing dynamic changing movements is very important to this project. While I was taking photos with my samples outdoors, I accidentally discovered a way to create the most natural and dynamic effect, that is, interacting with nature by wind.
Medium: Silk, silk filaments, silk thread and copper wires
Size: In various sizes
Inspiration
Medium: Watercolour and paper
'Growing' Everywhere
My flowers can be used in different scenarios and environments. To directly show the application and atmosphere that I wanted to create, I took my flowers to many different places, such as bridges, arches, Westminster station, and even walls in a car park. Although my flowers are not real, they are close to real size and have realistic colours. Compared to real plants, my flowers require less daily care and do not need a growing environment that requires soil and sunlight.
If my flowers are used as decorative products, I can also apply them in different ways. Composing them directly onto walls or surfaces or inserted them into concrete blocks or bricks. They harmonise with different kinds of surfaces and can be used in a range of spaces.
Medium: Silk, silk filaments, copper wires and concrete
Size: In various sizes
Behind the Scene
As Ronghua is an uncommon technique, I have focused on learning it within these last five months. Before starting, I needed to prepare the degummed silk filaments. I bought a tie of raw silk filaments and degummed it by boiling the filaments in lye (lai) water several times. Degummed silk has a much softer and brighter texture than raw silk, and only degummed silk can create the velvet texture of Ronghua.
Making Ronghua and embroidering silk are both time consuming. It can easily take one to two days to make a piece of a Ronghua flower. And it can take 1 to 4 weeks to make a set of flowers. To show how it is made, I recorded a video of the process.
Acknowledgement
Special thanks to Ms. Zhang Danhong for teaching me how to embroider with silk and helping me with my embroidery.