Fengfeng Li (b. 2001, Inner Mongolia, China) is a jewellery artist and interdisciplinary creator currently studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her practice merges metal, textile, and 3D printing to explore themes of body, belief, and cultural identity. Drawing from Mongolian nomadic heritage and global experiences across China, the United States, and Europe, she creates works that blur the boundaries between object and ritual, past and future. Through her concept of “future jewellery,” Li reimagines adornment as a transformative medium—one that carries memory, reshapes the body, and channels the flow of faith.
Current Obsession: Could you tell us the story behind your graduation project and what drew you to the subject?
Fengfeng Li: My graduation project, Before, After life, explores the body as a site where belief, culture, and identity continuously circulate and transform. Rather than treating jewellery as a static adornment, I approach it as an active system that mediates between individuals, environments, and shared rituals.
Rooted in my Mongolian heritage and nomadic philosophy, I am interested in the idea that culture is not fixed, but constantly moving, dissolving, and reforming across boundaries. This perspective informs my investigation into the “flow of belief” or how meaning is transmitted through contact, proximity, and exchange. In this context, the body becomes a vessel, and jewellery becomes a mechanism that activates connections between bodies.
My work focuses on metal as both structure and language, creating forms that extend beyond the traditional boundaries of jewellery. These pieces interact with the body by guiding posture, shaping movement, and creating points of tension and connection. They are not isolated objects but part of a larger system involving performance, image-making, and ritualised actions, in which multiple bodies participate in processes of gathering, circulation, release, and renewal.
What drew me to this subject is a desire to rethink the role of jewellery in contemporary practice: not as ornament, but as a medium that carries cultural memory, constructs relationships, and bridges the past with speculative futures.
CO: Beyond the gallery, where do you see your work taking root and finding its life? Who do you hope to reach with your work?
FL: Beyond the gallery, I see my work taking root in spaces where bodies gather and interact: ritualistic, performative, and communal environments rather than purely exhibition-driven contexts. I am interested in activating my pieces through participation, where meaning emerges through contact, proximity, and shared presence.
My work is not meant to exist as isolated objects, but as part of a living system. I imagine it being experienced in temporary installations, performances, or site-specific settings, where viewers are not only observers but participants. In these contexts, jewellery becomes a medium that structures relationships between individuals, between bodies, and between people and their environment.
I hope to reach individuals who are sensitive to the invisible forces that shape human experience, those who are interested in questions of identity, belief, and connection beyond surface appearances. At the same time, I am interested in engaging diverse audiences across cultural backgrounds, reflecting my own experience of moving between geographies and systems of meaning.
Ultimately, I see my work as a platform for exchange, where different identities, histories, and beliefs can coexist, intersect, and transform.
CO: What’s your favourite studio ritual?
FL: My favourite studio ritual centres around the process of forging metal. I begin by heating the material until it becomes responsive and soft enough to be shaped, yet still resistant. This moment of transition is essential; it sets the conditions for everything that follows.
Forging requires a continuous dialogue between force and control. Each strike carries intention, but also unpredictability. I work through repetition. Hammering, reheating, and adjusting, allowing the form to gradually emerge rather than forcing it into a predetermined shape. The rhythm of these actions creates a physical and mental focus that I return to every day.
There is also a strong sense of time embedded in the process. Metal holds memory; every mark, compression, and deformation remains visible. Instead of erasing these traces, I treat them as part of the work’s language – evidence of transformation.
For me, forging is not only a technical method, but a way of thinking. It mirrors my broader practice, where structure is formed through cycles of pressure, release, and refinement. The ritual lies in returning to this process, engaging the material directly, allowing resistance, and shaping meaning through repetition.
