Yantong is an accessories designer based in China. Her background in fine art leads her towards a very personal approach when designing - laying bare her emotions, mental state and mood.
Yantong Chen
Yantong has used her work as a cathartic process. As a sufferer of a major depressive disorder she has experienced the mental erosion caused by depression. This collection is similar to a patients treatment diary, recording her mood as it repeatedly changes within her illness. Like her moods her work is not in a fixed state but in a dynamic form - transitioning from one to another. The depressed state of mind is so often not visible to others but so deeply consuming to the self, unrelenting, unexplained, unstable. She sees her work as an emotion expressed, or a mood explored. Drawing attention to the debilitating state of a depressed mood she highlights an illness which can often be invisible. Perhaps something that many can relate to at a time of a global pandemic.