Jiashan Du

This piece is about the emotional ties between me and my family that lie behind the culture of liquor. According to Chinese beliefs, liquor should be drunk from a small glass dedicated to drinking liquor. Under what circumstances would one carelessly drink liquor from a cup that is not a liquor cup? Perhaps only when we are at home with our closest people, we may be too lazy to look for a cup and drink from a random one. I use different cups to represent me and my family, maybe a mug, maybe a bowl, maybe a teacup, and then link them together to express the emotional bond between me and my family, the feeling of being able to be reckless in front of them. The red thread is a symbol of the bond between blood and water, it is a beautiful expression of the emotional bond between me and my family. The idea that blood is thicker than water has been in our minds since the beginning of time.

This piece is a display of solo drinking, the wearer can see themselves in the mirror holding a liquor glass and it looks like they are clinking glasses with themselves in the mirror. The mirror is made from polished silver plate and the mirror is reversible. One of the mirrors is coloured by using Patina Oxidising Solution to create a dreamy look, but you can also faintly see your reflection in the mirror as if you are drinking with your dream self.

This piece is a movable structure in which two liquor cups collide when unbalanced. Through the collision of the two liquor cups, an emotional and relational connection is expressed. Each collision is like a contact and an expression of emotion during a social encounter. It is an emotional trigger is an act that I do to build our relationship. An expression of my desire to connect with you.

In the long history of traditional Chinese liquor culture, in ancient times when a couple got married they were required to drink 'cross-cups'. I think it was a way of expressing a bond of love through liquor. I have studied the gesture of 'crossed cups' and carved out traces of the fingers holding the cup so that the two wearers would unconsciously assume the 'crossed cups' position while wearing them.