Oscillations. MA Graduates Show. School of Jewellery Birmingham City University in Munich

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 a 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.


The exhibition is organised by the Birmingham City School of Jewellery.




This exhibition is a part of Polyphonous 2019.
Professor Jivan Astfalck, Rachel Darbourne and Laura Bradshaw-Heap have created, in partnership with Gabi Green, Polyphonous 2019, a hub of pop-up exhibitions for Munich Jewellery Week.
Studio Gabi Green has been a regular platform for the work of the team since 2012. Previous exhibitions include Suspend.ed, Suspend.ed in Pink, Subterranea and an iteration of JUNK: rubbish to gold. The gallery was the sole venue participating in MJW in the West End of Munich, Polyphonous was established in 2018 to create a hub of activity and encourage visitors.  
Gabi Green spent the summer of 2017 canvassing local businesses in the area to find suitable venues for the team to offer to other jewellery artists. Polyphonous debuted in 2018 as six exhibitions for international jewellery artists and the 2017 cohort from the MA in Jewellery, Silversmithing and Related Products from the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University.
2018 was a huge success with new local businesses and artists actively seeking to participate in the future. Polyphonous 2019 promises to be even bigger and better with eight venues showing the work of sixteen international artists from the UK, Europe and the US plus a showcase of work from the 2018 cohort of the MA at BCU.
Professor Jivan Astfalck and Rachel Darbourne, both educators, have been generously supported in this activity by their academic institutions the School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University and Plymouth College of Art respectively.