SO MINT! SIA LIU

Current Obsession: Could you tell us the story behind your graduation project and what drew you to the subject?

Sia Liu: Anxiety Regulation emerged from my observations of Generation Z and the invisible pressures that shape our daily lives. As young people, we are constantly preparing for uncertain futures while trying to remain productive, composed and socially present. I became interested in how anxiety is often hidden beneath performances of normality, success and self-control.

Rather than treating anxiety as a private emotion, I approached it as a cultural condition. Through a crown, necklace and ring, the project traces how emotional pressure moves through the body before gradually being concealed. Brass represents the controlled surface we present to others, while thermoplastic polymorph embodies anxiety as a mutable force that expands, adapts and persists.

Beyond jewellery, I developed the project through performance, theatrical imagery and symbolic references inspired by tarot cards. I was drawn to this topic because it reflects a shared experience among my generation – one that transcends geography and culture. As an artist, I hope to create work that can be understood by audiences from different backgrounds, using adornment as a language for discussing contemporary emotional and social realities.

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?

SL: I see my work living beyond gallery spaces – particularly through fashion editorials, performance, publishing, digital platforms and cross-cultural conversations. Jewellery, for me, is not only an object but a medium for storytelling and connection.

In the future, I hope to continue working as an interdisciplinary artist, exploring the relationships between adornment, performance, identity and cultural exchange. As someone working between Chinese and Western contexts, I am interested in creating projects that can travel across cultural boundaries while remaining emotionally accessible.

I hope my work reaches people who may recognise their own experiences within it – especially young audiences navigating uncertainty, ambition and social expectation. Long term, I would like to contribute to platforms that support emerging and experimental voices, helping to introduce new perspectives and encourage dialogue between different creative communities around the world.

CO: What’s your favourite studio ritual?

My relationship with the studio is a complicated one – it is both heaven and hell.

The hell comes from the physical reality of making: long hours, sore hands, unfinished ideas and the frustration of failing repeatedly before something finally works. I often spend entire days inside the studio without noticing time pass.

Yet it is also heaven. The studio is where curiosity becomes material and where questions slowly take shape. What I enjoy most is not necessarily finishing a piece, but discovering a deeper question through the process of making. Every project leads me somewhere unexpected, opening new directions to explore.

Perhaps my favourite studio habit is talking to my work as if it were alive. By the end of a project, each piece feels strangely personal – like a child raised through patience, obsession and countless mistakes. I sometimes joke that I love my work more than I love myself, but there is probably some truth in that. Making is exhausting, but it is also where I feel most focused, most honest and most alive.