Lyrics in Chinese version
Recently I like this song very much. The lyrics in Chinese version touched me, it narrates the women felt empty in her life and intended to end her life until she met a person give her a little hope and then she decided to continue her life, has some expectation to the world. The song highlights the strong hope by describing the deep darkness of life first. It let me think about the significance of life and death. I couldn't help bursting into cry when I watched the live video of that song at the first time, for it aroused a strong resonance in the bottom of my heart in some aspects. That's the reason I decided to interpret it by jewellery to convey a positive message to encourage people who ever faced difficult time to live.
This is a better translation of the song, as it remains the structure and rhyme of the lyrics.
To be, or not to be - analysis, source from book The Shakespeare Handbooks Hamlet by John Russel Brown
using realism to express humanlism.
tense muscles and bending toes reveal the deep inner depression and hidden suffering within the heart of the character.
source from URL: https://www.tes.com/lessons/NeocSSxmrRqHDg/vanitas
Vanitas painting is a series of paintings that contains the collection of objects which symbolise death, to exhort the viewers to cherish their lives, their present, as all of us will die one day, the time for us to live in this world is temporary. Those objects include skull which represents death, a candle that might symbolise the present, passing time or the light in the darkness of life.
Source from URL:https://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/haunting-pieces-of-memento-mori?utm_term=.ktGndP02j#.qu538bMwv
These are memento mori jewellery pieces, it is a Latin phrase, means "remember that you will die". They are most Victorian-era pieces, some of those pieces are made of hair from deceased, those mourning the dead would wear them to memorialise them and also keep reminders of their own mortality. I think it might a good idea to use personal objects to apply in the jewellery design to remind ourselves.
source from URL: http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/2746/irving-penn-still-lifes
The 12 apples in this photograph decompose in various stages, the black rotten bits for me is just like the difficulties in life, which they erode your hope and enthusiasm, drag you into the darkness and depression. I think I might use the rotten food to symbolise the life, apply them in my jewellery design, maybe through preserving the rotten apple or create the rotten apple form using clay.
Source from URL: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/163748136432079620/?lp=true
Even though these papaver nudicaules are dry, they have some kind of an aesthetics of death. Their life is much shorter than us, but it still keeps
a reminder for us our life is limited. Compares to the whole universe, our lives are just like these flowers, so fragile.
Source from URL: http://valeriehegarty.com/artwork/2105321_Watermelon_Head.html
I looked at Hegarty's painting to see how she presents the decaying objects in an art form. The rotten bit in the watermelon has a sense of aesthetics. She is specialising in the trompe-l'oeil style, which I think I might also use the technique of layers.
Source from URL: http://valeriehegarty.com/artwork/2818904_Flower_Frenzy.html
Some flowers came out of the frame are dead, those remain in the frame are alive. It let me associate with Hamlet's famous soliloquy " To be, or not to be". Staying in the frame is safe but we are controlled by it and lose the freedom, and one day we will die. Out of the frame, it is not easy to do, there is a risk but also hope to live a bright life. Sometimes, it is really hard to make a decision. I might use the frame in my jewellery design to suggest something control and restraint in life.
Source from URL: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/05/skeletal-maple-leaf-bowl-sculptures-by-kay-sekimachi/
Because the leaves are quite fragile, so I looked at how people preserve them to use it, this Japanese artist gives them solid form by adding kozo paper, watercolour and Krylon coating.
Source from URL: https://www.ibookbinding.com/blog/handmade-paper-making-tutorial-advanced/
Kozo paper is made from renewable branches of the kozo (paper mulberry) bush, specifically the innermost of three layers of bark which must be isolated to be cooked and beaten before the sheets are formed. Kozo fibre makes strong, translucent and absorbent papers.
Source from URL: https://designandculturebyed.com/tag/egg/
The bird standing on the eggs, watching the destination of them, the expression is quite serious. The life is not easy.
10 Models
This scales scale the life and death, to question the viewers how they think about and balance them.
The green shoot represents hope, the sands symbolise difficulties in life.
Encourage people to live whatever how hard the environment is, there will be some hope in the future.
The nail and sand represents difficulty in life, green grass symbolises hope in the future, the soak with patch represent the poverty, the wooden block acts as if an inappropriate artificial limb. The whole model talks about a story of the poor faces lots of difficulties in life, but he just keeps going. I want to convey this kind of positive message to the depressed viewers to encourage them to live.
Most of the time, the thing makes people depressed is the relationship with others, you want to cut off but they are just a mess. They tangle, make you cannot move a step, then your thoughts will be also like the tangled threads.
broken eggshell represents broken fragile life. Those green branches are like difficulties in life, at the same time, it can help you grow.
I quite like the use of eggshell, I think it is the best object to represent fragile life, therefore I will look at the way to hold the egg in my jewellery design.
This "gun" is made of food: Baguette, cherry tomatoes, potato and pea. Food supports the lives to survive, while the gun is to protect from harm or hurt people.
Source from URL: http://ivcavostrovska.com/tag/vratislav-karel-novak/
I like this egg ring design very much. The structure is concise but very effective, it is just beautiful. I think I will also design a simple carrying device but focus on details.
Source from URL: https://www.pinterest.com.au/bekivaile/egg/
I like the way the artist uses the black thread to cover the eggshell, I think it might represent the life predicament, I might also use that in my jewellery design.
I found the English version of the song, but it does not translate well, as it loses the structure of the lyrics, it just translated it word by word.
source from book William Shakespeare Hamlet edicted by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen
It narrates the protagonist thought about ending his life, while he received a summer style kimono in New Year, then he decided to live until this summer. This text expresses the similar emotion as the song, it describes something dark, depressed in the beginning, then the little hope, expectation sparks in the darkness, give the people a bit courage to continue their lives. And that little hope touched me so much. As we all need some kind of reasons, and expectation to support us to live in this world.
Source from URL: http://izquotes.com/quote/392649
This is Descartes, his answer for his significance of life, why he existing in this world. I think everyone has their own answer or they need an answer to support their lives. And some people live in this world just for seeking their significance of existence.
Some points in the mind map I feel is interesting, such as decomposition, it is an organic phenomenon of rotting, the death of natural creatures, such as flowers and animals. And they provided earth with some important organic substance and energy through their death, their death is transferred into something useful to help the living, which I think it is another form of being alive.
And ageing is the human organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age, the destination of the ageing process is death. We will all die one day. Because of that, I think we should cherish our lives every day as we have limited life on earth.
source from URL: http://www.dailyartdaily.com/small-guide-still-life-symbols-part-1/
I quite like the symbolism of candle, which the elements in one candle stand for lots of meanings, such as wax of the candle, it represents the past, the candle body symbolises the life, the candlelight stands for the present and hope, once it went out, it then symbolises death. The candle itself is almost equal to human life, our final destination is just like the candle after it went out, we die. The wax remained and the gas is what we left in this world. I think I might use the candle in my jewellery design as a symbolic object that represents the hope of life.
This is my visual dictionary of the symbolism of objects which represent some important elements that support me to live in this world, and also some elements that might exert pressure and depress people to intend to end their lives. I think I might use some found objects to develop, make models first to visualise my understanding of life and death, and also for initial inspiration for what I could use to take it further.
source from URL: http://caitboo.com/?p=801
http://artpulsemagazine.com/breaking-the-medium-of-painting-down
Sam Taylor Wood's photographs and film show the whole decomposition process of classical still life. She focuses on the life and death of natural forms, by the end of the short film, only a grey amorphous mass left. I think the whole film tell us our mortality, that's the end of all of us.
source from URL: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/258534834839040618/?lp=true
I think I might use some natural fragile objects in my jewellery design, as they represent fragile life. Therefore I looked at this fragile leaf, it looks quite pretty, but I think I might not use this kind of leaf because it is really hard to keep it safe in a jewellery piece.
Source from URL: https://hillaryfayle.wordpress.com/
I like the way the artist use thread to joint these leaves together using the negative space, it is quite amazing and beautiful. The texture is really nice.
Source from URL: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/01/delicate-vessels-sculpted-with-pressed-flowers-by-ignacio-canales-aracil/
The artist weaved the stem of pressed flowers to give it a delicate vessel-like, but it is really fragile, could be crushed with even slight weight.
I looked at eggshell, as it is a fragile object that supports a life in it. Rather than those decaying leaf and flowers, I think eggshell is a better material to look at because even though it is fragile, it is not that weak as decaying leaf, it is easier to manipulate compares to the other two. And also it is a cradle to give birth, which I feel more vitality from it. It has both elements of fragile life and hope. Therefore, I am interested in how I can manipulate and use it in my jewellery design.
Source from URL: http://samanthakmacy.com/anca-gray-unfinished-poem/
Anca Gray creates this massive piece using hundreds of eggshells, the layering of eggshells in different levels of broken create a dynamic sense.
I think the stacked eggs suggest the risk and danger in life. It lets the viewers kind of worry about the destination of the eggs, as if they are going to fall out at the next second.
Source from URL: http://ingberg.com/
I think ingberg's photographs series is very suitable for the theme of the Japanese song " There was a Time when I thought about dying". This photograph series is just about life and death. He uses the tree to represent life here, the heavy stone symbolise burden in life, and the balloons stands for something like freedom, innocence and hope. Forever, the photographer express the human's whish as they want to live a longer life in this world just as a tree. The wish photo I think it conveys something like cherish everyday you live in this world, do not leave tomorrow to regret.
The clock represents time, and the bridge symbolises life path, you cannot go back as the time never stops, whatever happened in the past, overcome it and keep going.
Life is just like a crossroad, you do not know what is in the front waiting for you, therefore make a decision cautiously.
The bird is disabled, with only one wing and one leg, the other wing is also wounded. The cage is opened, while it can only stay in the cage, as the only destiny for it is death if it steps out the safe cage.
Those objects falling out the bag all have their meanings. Such as the stones symbolise burden, the candle symbolises life, tangle thread represents thoughts, decaying wood stands for difficulties in life.
Source from URL: https://artjewelryforum.org/artists/sigurd-bronger-in-between
I like the carrying device for the egg, as long as you add a little bit force to the egg, it will crush it. This piece is about control and risk. It just narrates the life, sometimes you will be crushed by intense outside pressure.
These two amazing pieces are Vratislav Karel Novak's work, the second one looks like a fire balloon, the egg acts as a balloon in this piece, it is a secure method to store the egg, which shows the importance of it.