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
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.
Aftershape reflects on relocation and its impact on memory by recreating objects from past living spaces. These traces form a set of ‘soft archives’. In this work, they appear in two forms. In the glass container below, the fabric is submerged in water. Water gives a sense of cleanliness and represents a path connecting two places. The fragments do not dissolve, but slowly absorb and deform in the liquid. Through material transformation, these pieces preserve emotional residues and function as ‘non-human witnesses’ to fading time. The work emerges from an impulse to commemorate overlooked traces of domestic life that anchor a sense of orientation.
Competitions
