Xiyi Chen

Xiyi Chen is a jewellery artist from Zhejiang China, based in London. She graduated from China Academy of Art (Fashion Product Design BA) in 2021 and presented the 'Girl's Rebellion' collection of jewellery designs at her graduation exhibition. She is currently graduating from the Royal College of Art (Jewellery & Metal MA).

She has experimented with the use of ancient proverbs as inspiration for her jewellery pieces. With a strong interest in the collision of literature and art, she has devoted her time at the RCA to the study of text and contemporary jewellery. Experimenting with jewellery as a new language to interpret the philosophies of ancient quotations.

The connection between people, the past and the present, words and interpretation, literature and jewellery is a transformation and a form of communication across space.

Writing is not only the act of human expression but also a reflection of the current artistic forms. As carriers of ideological ideas, there can be a close connection and collision between texts and jewellery.

In the eyes of Xiyi, jewellery creation goes beyond the physical form and delves into the extraction of metaphysical spiritual cores.

Based on such connections and resonances, she incorporates ancient sayings as the foundation for contemporary jewellery language and narrative, aiming to construct a bridge that spans across time and connects the present with the past.

Ancient sayings often embody their philosophical wisdom through metaphors, and metaphors are also one of the ways contemporary jewellery interprets its concepts. Interestingly, these metaphors often rely on the juxtaposition of two concepts, which can be contrasting or complementary, representing the differences between two positions or states and intertwining to create multiple possibilities.