Yaning Liu

Yaning Liu is a multidisciplinary artist born in China in 2001. His work encompasses jewellery, objects, sculpture, and photography. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Crafts from Beijing Union University, focusing on the innovation and practice of intangible cultural heritage crafts. In August 2024, he completed his studies at the Royal College of Art.

Yaning’s recent research and interests centre on reconstructing everyday objects’ identity, emotions, and functionality beyond their utilitarian purposes, as people often regard objects merely as tools, attempting to control and predict their form and function. This results in a lack of emotional connection and unsustainable interaction behaviours. Deeply integrating material culture studies, his design inspiration comes from fundamental interactions between people and everyday objects, exploring the causality, consciousness, and change within these dynamics. He utilises everyday objects as his language, creating unfamiliar encounters within familiar items.

He has named his series of practices “The Emergence of Objects.” He believes that The Emergence of Objects reflects value consciousness, behavioural narratives, social context, as well as the identities and self-awareness of the objects themselves. These emerging objects acquire human-like identities and capabilities, becoming wearers of jewellery, connectors within communities, or even entities capable of choosing their forms. By creating new interactive approaches, his designs aim to challenge people’s perceptions of conventional tools and their uses, provoking reflection on behaviour and the nature of objects.