Shiying Bian (Eleven)
Shiying Bian (Eleven) is a London-based Chinese glass and porcelain artist whose material-led practice translates the Twenty-Four Solar Terms into spatial studies of time. Cast and lamp-worked glass, paired with hand-formed porcelain, register micro-transitions—thaw, humidity, stillness—at seasonal thresholds. Embracing cracks and slumps as generative events, she treats material behaviour as both method and theme. Exhibitions include the RCA Degree Show, “Oscillation” (Small Gallery) and “Un-palinodic Recurrence” (Purist Gallery). Her new installation Summer Solstice · Rooted in Transition appears in the 2025 LumiNoir Art Exhibition.
Summer Solstice · Rooted in Transition is a cast-glass sculpture that captures the tensile energy of midsummer’s threshold. Anchored to the Solar Term “Summer Solstice,” the work translates the moment of peak heat—when moisture rises and subterranean roots silently gather force—into material behaviour. Molten glass is poured, then rapidly cooled, producing internal stresses and hairline fissures that echo latent growth. In transmitted light the semi-translucent mass reveals layered gradients and capillary striations, recalling shimmering air or roots about to breach the soil. Rather than offering a linear narrative, the piece embodies expansion, contraction and micro-fracture, composing a temporal slice in which fullness turns toward change. By observing the glass’s subtle shifts of colour and texture, viewers are invited to sense the coexistence of movement and stillness that defines the Summer Solstice.
Project Gallery
