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About Eighteen :

Eighteen (Yihan) Yuan is a metalsmith and jeweler born in China. She moved to the United States and received her Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz in Metal in 2020.

She constructs and fabricates sculptural jewelry that express the reflection of human sentiment in nature through the connection of jewelry and body. Her work focuses on trauma and traumatic experience. Combining material such as Metal, Enamel, Paper, Resin wool. Her work creates a contrast of hard and soft. She uses enamel techniques to explore color and nature surfaces, and to bring drawing skills into her metal works.

 ARTIST STATEMENT

Eighteen YuanThe marks left on a person by a traumatic experience can be physical scars or painful memories. Because of the irreversibility of time, the trauma is almost impossible to completely heal. These wounds linger, and are part of our growth, just like the weathered formation of cracks on a rock. I form and fabricate the “skins” of rocks, imitating natural forms as a reflection of human sentiment. Rocks have a density and a physical weight, but these hollow works are light and split open, revealing unexpected inner cavities.

By under-firing the enamel, I am able to describe the true texture and color of the natural surface. Rocks or sand can be melted to make glass, which is the main ingredient of enamel. Conversely, I melt enamel to make rocks. Natural rocks absorb heat slowly and dissipate slowly; These qualities of warmth and resonance are embedded into wearable objects that quietly evoke difficult subjects. By bearing these objects on the body, I urge the wearer and audience to consider the new lightness of these burdens and propose new ways to move forward.