Shengyi Chen

Shengyi Chen completed his training as Jewellery designer at Gemological Institute of America in 2013. In 2018 he graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Jewellery Design at Central Saints Martins College of Art and Design.

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Degree Details

Jewellery & Metal (MA)

Modern reason has created barriers for elegant art. Art lacks the opportunity to communicate with the general public outside the elite. That’s how everything started, I want to talk to the audience directly in a unique language - Jewellery. I see my work as a sharp knife, a knife that cuts the society. what is inside the society? what is surrounding us? I am not a butcher, but I am more like an anatomist who is thirsty for the truth. As an artist, every piece of my work is a question I asked. Every thought of me is a process of refracting the outside world.

There is no way to bypass politics. Even an artist who is not in contact with the outside world, all his actions and choices made in the studio alone can’t get rid of politics. As a young generation artist of China, I have grown- up in a completely different environment than the politically-motivated artists of previous generations. But it doesn’t mean Chinese art is no longer as political as it once was.
I am less interested in making superficial political signs in my practices, but I am trying to decode various layers of political information in my works, However, as an artist from China, as opposed to the West, it’s necessary to find strategies to protect my freedom to create, whilst simultaneously confronting and expressing beliefs about the socio-political issues close to my hearts. In a repressive society that shuts down public dissent against the regime and “takes away” people who don’t agree with the status quo, I am trying to find new and innovative ways to express my sentiments through art, all the while ensuring that I don’t put myself in danger. I think contemporary art should evoke social issues and bring questions to people to think about. I am not criticising the politics but bringing the discussion to the table.

Medium: Black ruthenium plated silver/Diamond

Size: 55x55x15 mm

Inspired by 3 leaders of Communism party, stone setting with precious stones in the eye.
We see the future
 Long Live Communism

Medium: Black ruthenium plated silver/Diamond

Size: 20x26x30mm

Inspired by the word “Chairman”.

Who dares to sit?

Medium: Wood

Size: 500x560x630mm

Inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop Art and Communism’s icon Red Star.
I do not have a bourgeois diamond, instead of a Communism Red Star.
Will you marry me?

Medium: Red Coral/18k gold

Size: 40x15x15mm