Q I H UA N JEWELRY
L I U
PORTFOLIO
CONTENTS PROFILE ART JEWELRY PHOTOGRAPHY
STATEMENT Although I have no formal qualifications in art, I have developed my passion for it outside of the curriculum. I have always been fascinated by the patterns in art, architecture, photography, films, fashion and painting in the natural world, all of which have heightened my appreciation. This portfolio includes my art jewelry works in the past year as well as some of my photography.
EDUCATION
...to creat artworks from my heart ...unencumbered by rational thought
2008-2011 Jin Cai High School, Shanghai 2011-2015 East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, Public Management Bachelor 2015-2016 California Institute of Jewelry Training, Sacramento
l i n e s Jewelry and architecture often intersect. I am fascinated by the geometrical architecture and the minimalistic building designs. Artists’ works such as from Zaha Hadid, Leoh Ming Pei, and Tadao Ando, attract me and give me inspiration.
S k e t c h i n g
This small metal sculpture consists of four triangles and one square sterling silver sheet. I got the idea of this particular pattern from Chinese antique windows. Each and every one of those lines were cut out with a jeweler's saw and files. The last step is to fold them up into a three dimensional piece. I left one triangle piece not soldered on the bottom so that it can be opened by the hitch.
P r o c e s s
Final sterling silver 2.5 Ă— 2.5 Ă— 1.8 cm
Work
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THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
I'm interested in an experimental and personal dialogue with the contrariety of two concepts and their relation to each other.
Mei Long Road, Shanghai
The truth and the lie, the reality and the fantasy, the inside and the outside. The maker and the observer. Sometimes I feel that the things are not as they should be. I want to explore how jewelry can touch a deeper feeling instead of only a decoration.
e x p e r i m e n t
This is an experiment with a radius 2 cm copper sheet. This 0.45 mm thickness piece was bent using pliers and the bench vise.
nickle, brass 9 Ă— 4.5 Ă— 0.175 cm
Nickle was pierced to create this branch pattern. At the same time, I cut the exact same size on the brass and then soldered them together. Nickle, however, is very hard to bend and these two pieces can easily fall apart.
Based on the previous experiments, I decided to use sterling silver as an inlay part and copper as the background. After soldering these two pieces, I polished and cleaned the whole piece, running the torch in different directions to create a different color. I was attracted by the process that was inherently unpredictable.
sterling silver, copper, heat patina 10 Ă— 5 Ă— 0.1 cm
ETERNAL RECURRENCE
i n f i nite time
c o ncept
p r emise
Friedrich Neitzche's "eternal
return" is a concept that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur. If you live the life you now live and continue to live it, and you will have to live once more and innumerable times more—are you still willing to live like this? What is the meaning of individual existence?
T ime
is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of configurations is also determinate. Neitzche realized that if he would have to repeat life, his presumption of infinite time means "he" would "repeat" life differently, since every configuration of atoms and events will occur.
s t r ucture
copper 8.6 × 7.5 × 6.4 cm
p a t tern
p i e rcing
Cutting out a piece of brass sheet, each one of those tiles will be folded up and soldered.
The interpretation of Nietzche's eternal return is still debated, but at least, he is offering " a guide for how to li ve, so that you might be eternally happy with your choices. As if the eter nal retur n w as true, which is to say, that all our actions repeat an infinite number of times. Then we hav e to think a bout our actions before we take them.
brass, led lights, mirror 8.65 Ă— 7.5 Ă— 6.4 cm
INK Guanzi, a renowned Chinese philosopher from the Spring and Autumn period (771—403 BC) , wrote in his Guanzi chapter "Water and Land," "What is water? It is the source for the tens of thousands of species, and the origin for all lives. I use ink as a substance in tandem with chemical reactions in accordance with water. And the connection between ink and water is perpetually uncertain and filled with the unexpected.
water
plastic beads, ink 3.2 Ă— 3.2 Ă— 2.5 cm
These fake ice cubes are made of plastic jewelry beads. I took a block of wood and some aluminum foil. Then I folded and wrapped all but the top of the wood block, removed the block and filled the foil with the plastic beads. Before putting it in the oven, I dropped black ink into the beads.
I try to show what possibilities ink as a medium can bring to rice paper. Holding a brush which is absorbed full of the mixing of ink and water, I was able to generate unexpected results through a kind
of randomness on rice paper. I am enjoying this dynamic process that progress from order to chaos. At last, I picked up some of those irregular patterns that were transferred onto the copper plate.
copper, patina 5.8 cm
Photography