Birmingham City School of Jewellery. MA Degree Show 2018

Artist list

Yanyu Chen, Chun Cheng, Naomi Clarke, Yahan Fan, Spam Glam, Yuexin He, Chloe Henderson, Yasi Hu, Dantong Huang, Ningjue Ji, Qixuan Jin, Prim Li, Jiru Lin, Yi Mu, Yiji Pan, Haochen Shih, Jingyao Sun, Mengjing Tian, Yichen Wang, Yueshan Wang, Xingxing Yu, Bingchan Yuan, Jiaqi Zhang, Zihan Zhou

For the artists exhibiting here, these ideas are imbued with cultural resonances, often informed by the distances travelled – personally, as well as geographically. Yearning for the familiar has led some to search out materials that bear poetic traces of home – autumnal leaves, flawed concrete, reflective acrylic – whereas others have used their practice to prise open and probe the rupture in their lives created by the migrations that they have made. They have been taking in soundings, contemplating jewellery’s capacity to carry narrative, to communicate their ideas and challenge thinking. And yet, amongst all this variation and divergence, can we see evidence of a central value around which jewellery oscillates?

Throughout, there is a focus on play, and the wear and use of jewellery. Having coaxed their works into life, the artists have followed the process through, exploring the role jewellery plays once it leaves the jeweller’s bench and makes its own way in the world. They celebrate the fact that, in use, jewellery becomes a vehicle to bring wearers and viewers together, sharing a moment of appreciation or fun. It is created to be worn, experienced and – above all – enjoyed.