Yiling Shen

I have been studying and living in the UK for a long time. During this time, different cities have brought me different feelings. So I started to plan this project.

The project was inspired by Shanghai, a city in China. The first impression of the city is prosperity. It is a modern city. But there is a special area where there are a lot of old houses and on the opposite side are modern high-end houses. I was very interested in this contrast, so I researched it in depth. My research focuses on old houses, which attract me with their cracked and stained walls, tangled branches and wooden windows. These things seem to be decayed, but at the same time, they are very beautiful and special to me. I plan to use them as my inspiration and incorporate them into my works to show the beauty of things that belong to cracks or decay.

I was helped a lot by the material concrete, which is essential for building a house, but it’s not often used in jewellery. I have explored this material and found that the fragments obtained after it was broken are very interesting. The edge lines of these fragments are the cracks mentioned in the research. So the edge lines of the fragments are the focus, and I have manipulated them to make the edge lines look like they have been emphasized. I present detail of decay in this way and make it into jewellery. As in Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem,” “There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” A crack can be illuminated by light and even carry light, allowing light to enter a crack’s heart. Similarly, broken things can also be discovered and valued. They also have their own value and their unique beauty.