For Liu Fujie, whose piece Hybrid is on display, the project allowed her to work with gold, a color she rarely uses.

Her sculpture shows a strange form made up of aquatic creatures, plants and cells that are ever-growing.

"It is to deliver a feeling of the uncertainty of the things, time and space, and our experiences of instability," she says.

"I turned to the gilding technique. The gold leaves are light, fragile and not easy to work with, but when applied to a surface, it presents a certain extent of weight and a hard, solid texture."

She says gold reminds her of the light penetrating mist and clouds or the fading memories from the past, and it feels like something sharp that disappears in an instant.

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

Guardian Art Center

10 am-6 pm, Tuesday-Sunday; noon to 6 pm, Monday; last entry at 5:30 pm. 1 Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8592-8266.