Yijia Wu

Yijia Wu featured image

About

Yijia Wu (b. 1997, China) is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. She graduated from Central Saint Martins with First Class Honours in BA Fine Art in 2021 and is currently completing her MA studies in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art. 

Wu's practice explores the fluid notion of home and the sense of unsettlement and dislocation she experienced as a migrant. Through installation, writing and performance, she utilises mundane, often domestic materials to create paradoxical situations. By drawing references from the cultural meanings embedded in these objects, Yijia weaves together a narrative that portrays her journey and the story of being a migrant.


Upcoming Exhibition:

2023 Home Away From Home, House of Annetta, London, UK


Selected Exhibitions:

2023 No Man’s Land, A.P.T. Gallery, London, UK

2023 Cozy Ganza, Avalon Cafe, London, UK 

2023 Tate Late, Tate Modern, London, UK

2023 Beyond Surface, Montez Radio, London, UK 

2022 Bon Voyage, Slash Art, London, UK

2022 Home / Away, The Bhavan, London, UK

2022 BODY ECSTATIC BODY ECLECTIC BODY ECCENTRIC, Ulay Foundation, Slovenia 

2021 What Have We Done?, Lethaby Gallery, London, UK

2020 Sale, Tate Modern, London, UK

2019 Open Mouth Film Festival, TT Cinema, London, UK

2019 I Dance the Other, Studio Wayne McGregor, London, UK

2018 Young Modulus, The Crypt Gallery, London, UK

2018 Improvisation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

2016 1-100, Pangolin Gallery, London, UK


AWARDS:

2021 NOVA Award 2021 (shortlisted)

2021 CASS Art Prize 2021 (shortlisted)

2021 Barry Martin Prize 2021 (Shortlisted)


COLLECTION:

2021 98 Miles Apart, University of the Arts London Collections


(Image credit: Emily Seagrove)

Statement

Wu's practice is shaped by her migration journey since childhood. Through installation, performance, writing, and moving image, she explores the ever-shifting notions of home and the fragmented nature of memories. These memories not only reflect our transient experiences of the past and present but also refract them, prompting Wu to explore their functions in how we construct our sense of identity through a process of continual uprootedness, both in terms of time and place.

In her recent work, Wu delves into the cultural significance embedded within ordinary objects from our daily lives, investigating the fluidity of memory. By utilizing materials and objects such as soap, stone, pear, egg, kite, and bed frames, she reexamines the symbolic and cultural meanings associated with each medium. Through this process, Wu creates a language that is absurd yet familiar, nostalgic yet present. 

The Memory Filled into Every Gap of Time

A Pear is not a Pair

Medium: Alabaster stone, silver spoon, brass

Size: 8cm * 16cm * 8cm

Kite

Medium: Mild steel, brass

Size: 75cm * 43cm

Feed Me

Medium: Silver spoons, brass

Size: 74cm *7cm *5

What are we having for breakfast?

Medium: Soapstone, egg slicer

A Knot and a Ladder

Size: 315cm * 7cm

Soap Tiles

Medium: Soap

Size: 75cm * 15cm

Sweet Dreams

Medium: wood bed frame

Size: 120cm * 8cm