Danyan Liu has a keen interest in the relationship between environment, culture and humanity. As an artist from a Chinese cultural background, she explores the use of traditional oriental textile techniques to express her understanding of oriental philosophies within a contemporary narrative. She specialises in hand embroidery, hand drawing, screen printing, hand dye and digital print. She completed her undergraduate studies in textile(print) design at Chelsea College of Arts and her postgraduate studies in textile-printed at Royal College of Art.

Ruins and Growth, Renewing ruins by growing plants, Renewing traditional techniques via a contemporary concept.

Reinforced concrete buildings are generally considered indestructible. However, without maintenance, they can completely collapse within 150 years. I enjoy witnessing the changes that man-made things like buildings undergo as they become ‘naturalised’, that is, brought into conformity with nature. In the face of nature, which can always heal itself, human power is insignificant; hence, as humans, we should rethink our relationship with nature.

I have specialised in traditional Chinese textile techniques, such as Chinese embroidery and Ronghua, as my main methods, using natural traditional Chinese materials, such as silk, as my main materials, harmonising contemporary concepts and Oriental philosophies to illustrate scenes of contradiction: ruin and growth, life and decay. These designs will work in urban public spaces in order to help urbanites relax and draw a greater emphasis to the circle of life.