Arts Thread

Yanqiu Yu
Fine Art BA (Hons)

Central Saint Martins UAL

Graduates: 2025

Specialisms: Fine Art / Art History / Installation/Sculpture

My location: London, United Kingdom

yanqiu-yu ArtsThread Profile
Central Saint Martins UAL

Yanqiu Yu

yanqiu-yu ArtsThread Profile

First Name: Yanqiu

Last Name: Yu

University / College: Central Saint Martins UAL

Course / Program: Fine Art BA (Hons)

Graduates: 2025

Specialisms: Fine Art / Art History / Installation/Sculpture

My Location: London, United Kingdom

Website: Click To See Website

About

For me, making art is a way of translating perceptions into material and spatial experiences. My practice explores the temporal and narrative dimensions of objects, shifting between personal memory and institutional archives. I’m particularly interested in how material culture, from everyday belongings to museum artefacts which accumulates layered histories and changing meanings over time. Working across installation, sculpture, video, and text, I draw from research in art history, archaeology, and object theory. Many of my projects are informed by interdisciplinary independent research and in-depth engagement with collections and archival materials within institutional contexts. Recently, I have become increasingly focused on the act of collecting as a means of shaping subjective time and examining the tension between preservation and reinterpretation. For me, making art is a way of translating perceptions into material and spatial experiences. My practice explores the temporal and narrative dimensions of objects, shifting between personal memory and institutional archives. I’m particularly interested in how material culture, from everyday belongings to museum artefacts which accumulates layered histories and changing meanings over time. Working across installation, sculpture, video, and text, I draw from research in art history, archaeology, and object theory. Many of my projects are informed by interdisciplinary independent research and in-depth engagement with collections and archival materials within institutional contexts. Recently, I have become increasingly focused on the act of collecting as a means of shaping subjective time and examining the tension between preservation and reinterpretation. This body of work traces the development of two interconnected trajectories in my practice: one grounded in intimate, lived experience, and the other engaging critically with historical and institutional narratives. This body of work traces the development of two interconnected trajectories in my practice: one grounded in intimate, lived experience, and the other engaging critically with historical and institutional narratives.

A.1-1928 responds to a stone ram statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum, reconstructed through firsthand research and historical archives. It examines the gap between official narratives and fragmentary realities, turning archival references and archaeological discourses into open frameworks for re-reading institutional objects.