Shirley Wu’s creative practice encompasses a wide range of mediums including jewellery making, glass sculpture and performance art. Her work is heavily influenced by her studies in Holistic Therapy in Hong Kong with a focus on healing and meditation.
Wu’s work reflects her lived experience across multiple countries having grown up in Dongguan in the Cantonese region of China, studied in London and Hong Kong and now living and working in Tarntanya/Adelaide. During her childhood in China, she witnessed the fast-paced modernisation of her homeland and the cultural shift towards materialism which informs her creative practice today.
In this Colour Box Studio interview, Wu discusses her love of Alexander McQueen, her current residency at with Nexus Arts and the healing power of creativity.
Image courtesy of the University of South Australia. Photo credit: Juan Van Staden
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Born and raised in Dongguan, China, I’m an emerging artist based in Tarntanya/Adelaide.
The focuses in my practice are embodied experience, healing, and meditation, they reflect my personal journey as traveller, immigrant and female.
My practice encompasses jewellery, object making, glass sculpture, installation work and now perfomance, through various crafting skills such as lampworking, moulding, casting, metalsmithing, and stone carving. Some of my works invite audiences to engage with their other senses, eg. To touch and to feel the temperature and the tactility, to smell the scent and to hear the sounds.
How did you start your creative practice and why?
My journey started from my contemporary jewellery degree in the UK, I was inspired by Alexander McQueen’s fashion installation/performance. The quirkiness and capacity to express his concept and dark emotions were fascinating for me at the time. I started exploring my culture, my thought and emotion through practising jewellery making. It opens a window to ask questions and no need to seek for a quick answer, a safe place to make mistakes and to be me.
Yì 意, 2022, H120 x W165 x 20cm, Material: Flameworked borosilicate glass, Eucalyptus cneorifolia essential oil, dyed sola wood (Aeschynomene aspera), cotton thread, reed, silicone and MDF board. Photo by Michael Haines.
Where did you grow up and how has it influenced your practice?
I was born and raised in cantonese region in China, where the country underwent a significant economic and environmental transformation between the 1980s and 1990s. My early childhood memory of the Chinese economic reform was the black smelly river next to my parents’ apartment, the miles of women’s clothing wholesale & retail marketplaces in downtown, seeing Aunt reprimanding her leather factory employees about a mistake they made. I think these memory/traumas of the fast-moving world, the pollution, materialism have become the determination and the motivation to seek for way-out/escape, meditation, and therapy through creative practice.
Tell us about your past creative projects. What has been your most treasured creation so far?
When I finished uni in London, I made a series of handheld body objects in found river stone, semi-precious stone and porcelain that also can be used as massage tools. It was the first project that I started exploring body, physical touch, and healing. I think that was a seed planted in me.
Holistic Therapy 3, 2019, W20 x H30 x D15cm, Material: Clear glass, essential oil and cork, photo by Ella Maude.
Infusion, 2022, W1600mm x H400mm x D150mm, Material: Flameworked borosilicate glass, Eucalyptus cneorifolia essential oil, sola wood (Aeschynomene aspera), teak，cotton thread, reed and silicone. Photo by Michael Haines.
Tell us about your current project?
I’m currently doing a durational performance project ‘Find That Pace’ as part of 3-month studio residency with Nexus. This durational performance started at Nexus Courtyard is focus on embodied experience where I use my body as the tool for healing through mindfulness, connection, self-regulation. It’s also layering the hidden history of Chinese immigrant near Nexus Art today and my struggles of being new Chinese immigrant and emerging artist.
“I hold my breath…”, 2021, W220 x H180 x D15cm, Material: glass , sterling silver, nylon thread, ink and rice paper. Photo by Steph Fuller.
Where do you feel most creative and why?
A safe space for me makes me feel most creative, that can be at the beach, in the forest, self-nurturing time, time with close friends. My inner child only feels safe to come out to play, to laugh, to be silly and to create.
What do you hope audiences take from your work?
My work often encourages audiences to interact and to experience their own version of healing.
Whose work are you digging at the moment?
I visited Do Ho Suh’s major solo exhibition in MCA 2 month ago. I was deeply connected with the themes he explores about home, travelling and sense of displacement. His durational and endurance approaches in Rubbing/Loving Project inspired me on my current project. To me, the fabric sculptures he created for carrying his memory during travelling, is the way he processes the sense of loss and loneliness in travelling.
Where can we find and follow you online?
Instagram: @shirleywu.jewellery