Exploring and Recording Emotions is Always Essential for My Art. Interview with Dongyi Wu by Klimt02

Tell us about your background. What were your first influences to be creative and become an artist and what has drawn you to contemporary jewellery?
I was born and raised in China. I'm currently working and living in San Antonio, USA. I received my Master's Degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in Metal and Jewelry Design, and my Bachelor's Degree from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology in China.
My mom isn't a professional artist, but she loves art. When I was a kid, she drew large-dimension paintings at home sometimes. I felt that her process of creation was the magic shows for me. Influenced by my mom, I gradually find that I love to show people my vision, thoughts, and imagination through visual arts.
My artworks span across jewellery, body jewellery, objects, and sculptures, but jewellery is the primary medium of my artistic research. Contemporary jewellery allows me to explore the relationship among human bodies, artworks, and spaces in between. I want to treat human bodies not as an empty canvas for jewellery to fill in, but as an essential component of jewellery. I believe jewellery is a visual language of human bodies that is delivered to others without real words.
 

How important is networking for you in your professional practice and what are your preferred tools for this?
Meeting or getting to know old/new friends is always fun and important as a jeweller. Talking with people from different areas always brings me new inspiration, information, and knowledge about jewellery and art, and sharing my stories with others makes me feel enjoyable and satisfied. Because of Covid, social media like Instagram and Zoom meetings have become vital tools for me to get in touch with other artists, galleries, and institutions from all over the world, which is convenient and efficient. But I also miss the days when people could talk face-to-face on events and shows, sharing stories and experiences.
 

What are your general thoughts on the contemporary jewellery world, (education, market, development...), where do you see chances and where are dead ends?
I hope there is a bridge to connect the education institutions with markets better. I participated in some talks/events about business tips related to contemporary jewellery, making me think it would be nice if these talks could be classes for schools. I consider inspiring students thinking about the relationship between their unique artwork and jewellery for sale might help them prepare for the challenges after they graduate. They might also have more time on analysing their advantages and disadvantages, which might help them to find their own path to their business easily. I believe it always takes time to thoroughly understand ourselves, such as our own art style and sense. So does the business.
 
Dongyi Wu. Brooch Sewer, trash and street 02, 2020. Copper, Paper, Plastic, Found Object, Silver, Stainless steel. 10.2 x 10 x 4.6 cm.


Thinking about your career, what role do technology and the digital play in your artistic development & communication?
Technology and the digital play an essential role for me to get connected with people around the world, especially during the Covid time. They are great tools to make connections, present the works, find inspirations, look for opportunities and updates, and get encouraged by each other.
I haven’t used digital technologies like 3D printing for my artworks, but I might want to try in the future to see if the technologies would help me to find new motivation and inspiration. I am a person who always has an interest in exploring new things; this is also one reason why I enjoy playing with a wide range of materials in the process of my creations. But I find it is convenient to enlist help from Photoshop or some Apps from the iPad to build previews or models during the production process. They always assist me in finding possibilities or mistakes during the creation.
 
 
How has your work changed over the past few years and what are you excited about these days?
As an artist, exploring and recording types of emotions is always essential for my art. I liken myself as a storyteller to narrate those life scenes seem to be trivial and common, but it actually can express strong, intensive, and genuine emotions. It has been one of my motivations for my creation, and it didn’t change over the past few years. However, I have created plenty of works from several collections during the past few years, such as Access to unknown worlds, Tired, and No Longer Human. People have been saying they look different, and I want to reply yes. They were telling different stories that the ideas were collected from wide fields: literature books, my own experiences, or researches of psychology. I am a person who has been easily attracted to new things that have brought me new ideas and inspirations. Although my works in the past few years were presented with different forms and materials, they all narrated stories about emotions. If I use a metaphor that my work is a storybook, my series could be considered as different chapters of the book, which are all designed to elaborate the main purpose of the book: emotions.