Chien-Yu Liu. School of Jewellery. Birmingham City University. Selected Graduate 2019

The development of Chien-Yu’s practice has followed the arc of her recovery from a period of loss, after suffering a series of bereavements.  On arrival at the School of Jewellery, she ensconced herself in the school’s basement and began a series of experiments in forging and forming a range of metals.  The physically gruelling hammer work was – initially – brutal, draining and numbing, capturing broken forms and shattered metal.  Aluminium forms recorded the hammer strikes and documented Chien-Yu’s eventual healing as the raw cleavages of early work gave way to the refined forms of the final collection.  The work as a whole is an interrogation of absence and presence: tools, materials, adornments and narrative are pressed into service to examine how loss can be folded into our sense of self to make us who we are.
/ Sian Hindle. Course Leader, MA Jewellery and Related Products