Shiyao Sun is a visual artist with a background in jewelry art. She completed her Master’s degree at HDK-Valand, where her project explored the intimate physical interactions between ornament and body. Driven by curiosity and a desire to challenge the boundaries of material and form, her practice centers on material experimentation, enabling her to move fluidly between formats such as jewelry, objects, images, sculpture, the body, and video.
Shiyao sees her artistic journey as one of challenge, exploration, and play—aimed at reframing our understanding of materials and fostering dialogue between jewelry, craft, and contemporary art. She uses art as a channel to delve into the norms of contemporary life and spark meaningful conversations. Her work invites viewers to think, feel, and engage in new and unexpected ways.
Current Obsession:
I’ve always believed that the overlooked and taken-for-granted can reveal the most. While my previous works often touched on the body, it was never the central focus, especially the tiny, subtle interactions that occur in everyday life, always overshadowed by jewellery. The body present differently in the discourse of jewellery, usually as a beautiful feature, but I’m drawn to the body in mundane settings: the one sitting next to us on the bus, the one passing by on the street, the one queuing in front and after us – the bodies we see every day but rarely truly notice. With this project, I’ve had the time and space to fully commit to these overlooked body spots, allowing them to guide my research and practice. This shift has opened up a fresh field of inquiry, one rich with potential for new perspectives and meaningful discussion.
‘The body, long a silent background for jewelry, often fades beneath the shine of adornment. Yet it bears subtle marks, imprints, and changes caused by wearing. My work captures these traces, translating bodily interactions into visual and tactile forms’
CO:
SS:
However, since my project is anchored in everyday phenomena, I conducted a participatory study-To Wear or Not To Wear- to explore the daily interactions, which became my own database and led the project to a breakthrough. In this study, I invited people around me to shift their relationship with jewellery over a period of 21 days: jewelry wearers were asked to stop wearing jewellery, while non-wearers were asked to wear one piece. This reversal aimed to stimulate the subtle and temporary physical interactions.
Participants were asked to document their feelings in a diary. At the end of the process, I created one image for each case, featuring the participant’s involved body part alongside a handwritten quote from their diary. This project is not part of the final artwork, but it has been essential in shaping my approach, which shifting my focus from the surface of the body to its intimate, sensory experiences, and into the realm of haptic visualities.
CO:
SS:
Later, while reflecting on my project, I realized that my position as a jewellery artist from a background where jewelry is not commonly worn, but now studying and working in a context where wearing jewellery is a common and important social behavior has unconsciously inspired my interest in this topic. This contrast has given me a unique and valuable perspective within this discourse.
Instagram @sun_shiyao
All images courtesy of the artist.
Our annual series SO MINT! is back, shining a spotlight on the rising talents of fresh graduates in fashion, jewellery, and design from around the world.
Are you a recent graduate with remarkable work to share? Submit your portfolio via this link!
Submissions are open until the end of August 2025.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via veronika@current-obsession.com.
