Nan Chen

About

My name is Nan Chen(b.2000). The name of my graduation project is ‘the eternal lotus’, I am committed to becoming a designer who can heal others, designing decorative items that make people feel happy when they see them and can be used as interior decorations. During my time at RCA, the purpose of my work from project 2 onwards has been to freeze moments in life, because I believe that people can live for a moment, I used to have a serious mental illness, but it was those beautiful moments that saved me and made me remember the beauty of my life over and over again, and then pick myself up again. So this project is also about framing moments that are beautiful for me, and I want to share the moments in my eyes for everyone to see. I grew up in a city built around a lake, a very famous lake in China called West Lake. I grew up and would sit by the West Lake and draw pictures to record its seasons throughout the year. The most iconic element of the West Lake is its water and the lotus flowers planted all over the water, which is the image that is fixed in my mind. These are photos I took before and paintings I made a few years ago. The water of the West Lake takes on different hues as the sky and the environment change, and the lotus flowers will only open in the summer, but the state of the flowers will always change with the seasons. We can’t define which is the more beautiful moment when the flowers bloom and fall, the decaying lotus also has its unique charm, the richly coloured water and the cool water both have different feelings, and each state should be recorded.