9 April 2026

Artist Highlight - Cindy Liu

Interview and Review

Cindy Liu comes from backgrounds in architecture and metalsmithing, holding a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. During her academic and professional journey, she has participated in various building and urban regeneration projects, with a focus on sustainable design and material innovation.

Her research interests explore the concept of spatial palimpsest, archival spaces, and the role of the archive in cultural memory. Her work moves between building-scale projects and intimate jewellery explorations. In 2024, she founded Cinque, a studio dedicated to jewellery and object-making as a form of living archive.

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

1. The works embed fragments of antique bobbin lace within silver. How does this act of sealing fragile textiles into metal transform their meaning and material presence?

In the lost-wax casting process, silver replaces the fibre of the silk lace. The fork, often overlooked for its quiet sharpness and strength, becomes the form that carries this transformation. A fragile relic now sealed in the permanence of silver, its surface still bearing the imprint of fabric once shaped by hands and close to skin. Silver empowers the lace, lending resilience to centuries of feminine domestic labour, hence the name Metal Veil: what was fragile becomes enduring; what was ephemeral is given form.

2. Your practice often refers to the idea of the archive. How do these objects function as "living archives" of ordinary domestic histories?

My research begins by drawing overlooked relics of daily ritual from the cloud of history: the lace-maker's hours at the bobbin pillow and the quiet repetition of setting a table. These gestures hold domestic, feminine histories often passed through practice rather than written record. Both lace and cutlery carry geographical and temporal traces. Through sculpting and casting, these fragments re-enter the living ordinary: no longer passively stored, but actively carried. Each piece becomes a quiet record of centuries of feminine domestic labour. Worn on the body, this record of shared cultural memory enters someone's own daily ritual—and in doing so, it becomes personal.

3. The translucent resin frame in Metal Veil: In Suspension creates a suspended environment around the silver pieces. What role does this framing device play conceptually and spatially?

The frame defines a threshold between interior and exterior, stillness and movement. It serves as a small domestic dwelling for the silver objects when unworn. Suspended within the frame, the pendulum of time swings while the pieces rest in a moment of pause—a quiet contemplation of centuries of labour and craft.

4. The process combines hand carving with digital modelling and 3D printing. How do these different modes of making influence the final character of the work?

My work moves between traditional craft and digital fabrication. Hand carving carries the texture of touch: body heat, pressure, and the trace of the hand that shaped it. Digital modelling and 3D printing offer structural precision, allowing forms like the resin frame to be carefully calibrated. Together, these processes layer time and touch: handcraft embeds material memory, while digital tools extend its reach and structural life. Neither replaces the other—they meet at the threshold of making.

5. Structure. In what ways does architectural thinking shape the composition of these jewellery pieces?

The composition of Metal Veil: In Suspension follows an architectural logic: load, material, and threshold at an intimate scale. For me, architecture is about material implication and the play of scale. Our bodies occupy space, but where does jewellery dwell when unworn? The resin frame becomes that space: a small domestic vitrine where the silver rests between uses, held visible yet still, until it is lifted out and returned to the active life of the body.

6. The works transform utensils associated with daily rituals into wearable forms. How does this shift in scale and context alter the way viewers relate to these objects?

Scale changes how we attend to things. In this work, sewing tools such as thread winders and lace bobbins are enlarged to form the structure that holds the piece, while cutlery is reduced to sit on the body. Hand-sculpted into jewellery, it becomes unfamiliar enough to invite a closer look to notice the lace texture sealed within, the weight of silver, and the trace of a hand.

OBJECTS AS ARCHIVES, WEARABLE AND HELD

Review by Chih-Yang Chen, Art Director

Cindy Liu’s work moves between architecture and jewellery, but not in a literal way. It’s more about how space, memory, and structure are carried across scales. Her pieces feel like small containers of something larger, not just in form but in what they hold. In Metal Veil, that focus becomes quite direct. The work deals with domestic histories but avoids turning them into something nostalgic or overly sentimental. At the centre of the work is a material shift. Lace, something soft and fragile, is translated into silver through casting. What remains is not the fabric itself, but its trace. The surface still carries the memory of touch, of repetition, of time spent making. But the material has changed completely. There’s a tension here. The softness is gone, yet not entirely. It lingers in the imprint. The silver doesn’t erase the lace; it holds onto it in a different way. The use of cutlery and domestic tools adds another layer. These are familiar objects but slightly displaced. Scaled, reworked, and worn on the body, they stop functioning in the way we expect. Instead of using, they ask for attention. You start noticing details that would normally be ignored, the curve of a fork, the weight of it, and the quiet presence it has in daily life. Cindy seems interested in that shift, how something ordinary can carry more than we usually allow it to. The idea of the archive runs through the work, but it doesn’t feel fixed or static. These are not objects that store history at a distance. Once worn, they move; they enter new routines, new gestures. The archive becomes something active, something that continues rather than preserves. There’s something quite subtle here. The work doesn’t announce its meaning; it lets it build through use and proximity. The resin frame introduces a different kind of space. When the jewellery is not worn, it sits within this structure, almost like a small architectural setting. It feels somewhere between display and shelter. Not quite a vitrine, not quite a container. More like a pause. The pieces rest there, suspended, before returning to the body. This movement between states, worn and unworn, active and still, is an important part of how the work functions. You can also feel the combination of processes in the making. Hand carving leaves a certain irregularity, a sense of touch that isn’t fully controlled. The digital elements, especially in the frame, bring a different kind of clarity and precision. The two don’t compete. They sit alongside each other, each doing something specific. That balance keeps the work from feeling overly polished. What stays with you is how quietly the work operates. It doesn’t try to reconstruct history in a grand way. Instead, it focuses on small gestures, repeated actions, things that are often overlooked. By shifting their material and scale, Cindy gives them a different kind of presence. Not louder, just harder to ignore.