Haotian, artist born in China and now living and working in New York City, creates artwork that primarily explores his deeply personal inner feelings and expresses them through various mediums. Including contemporary art jewellery, metal, painting, art direction, graphic art, and more. His stories often draw from the subtle, nuanced emotions of everyday life, revealing and harmonising various contradictions. When viewers encounter his work, each person may interpret his story differently, either empathising with it or creating a new narrative. Regardless of the interpretation, Haotian succeeds in transporting people to the world’s he constructs with his diverse materials.
In his stunning art jewellery collection “Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the Splendid Month of May),” he confronts his own surrender to his desires since childhood. Like the Envy character in Inside Out 2, he believes that “Mimetic Desire” is central to this emotion. Mimetic Desire refers to the tendency for people to pursue what others have or desire, shaping their own choices and aspirations regarding material goods, identity, and even life paths.
Haotian explores the theme of mimetic desire through three pieces of artistic jewellery worn on different parts of the body, each showing the distortion and transformation of desire on the heart. Through subtle design and bold use of materials, his work vividly demonstrates how desire conceals its potential dangers on the surface while revealing its deeper psychological impact.
The first piece bluntly expresses how the imitation of desire distorts and warps the heart. It features twisted and irregular silver wires, white clay, and pink hearts. The twisted and irregular shape of the silver wire symbolises the inner disturbance and distortion of desire, while the pink heart attempts to mask this distortion. The apparent whitewashing of desire’s dangers is contradicted by the underlying crushed and distorted face, which reveals the true nature of desire and the pain it entails.
The second piece, a wearable art sculpture that metaphorically “fires bullets,” further explores the erosive nature of desire through irregular silver threads and white clay. Haotian explains that this piece reflects how desire sometimes makes him aggressive and drives him to extreme lengths to achieve his goals. The bracelet’s underlying aggression and sense of threat embody the intense emotions and impulsive behaviours spurred by desire.
The third piece, a contemporary art chain adorned with love hearts, symbolises the despair and hopelessness that accompany unfulfilled desires. Haotian illustrates this theme using non-aggressive white clay and pink love hearts. Although the chain appears soft and harmless, it metaphorically represents the desire to end an unfulfilled longing. It serves as a carefully adorned emotional trap that, while seemingly benign, subtly erodes one’s sanity, ultimately leading to psychological depletion and depression.
These three art pieces by Haotian offer a comprehensive view of the complexity of mimetic desire and its impact on the inner world through various design elements and materials. His contemporary art jewellery pieces are not merely visual decorations; they are reflections on the deeper effects of desire. Overall, Haotian’s contemporary art jewellery is marked by exploration and innovation. His bold use of materials and delicate craftsmanship showcase his impressive skills as an artist. As Haotian’s artistic persona continues to evolve, his work is expected to captivate and inspire audiences around the world.
