WU
Passing
Foundry
Master thesis 2016
"Coming from an architectural background being trained to design space for working and living, Pei-Hsuan Wu turned her inner eye 180° to focus on personal objects for body, soul and mind. Thus, one cannot be too astonished about the title of her thesis: "Parent, Past Life, Teddy Bear" in which she researched parent-child relationships.
During her colloquium, Pei concluded her defense: "There is always a quite strong, sometimes even violent action that deforms the material, and leaves a permanent mark even I put a lot of effort to free the deformed part. At the same time, although the material is deformed with tension, squeezed by pressure, the sense of gentle, warm and protective is always present. The contradictory and complex feeling and emotion is a core essence that I’m trying to capture in my work.“
What describes the special bond between children and their parents is certainly not only expressed in the form of the jewels, but also in the use of the main material stone. Of course, one may expect graduates of the Idar-Oberstein University of Applied Sciences to work with gemstone - it is our unique characteristic. Nevertheless, Pei has excellently understood how to let the material's intrinsics speak for and elegantly use them for her subject: hard, durable - for humans even "eternal" - cold at the first touch, but warming when touched and worn. Even though Xiao (the Chinese concept of respecting and supporting the elderly with all one's heart and submitting to their authority) is essential to this work, there is a heartbreaking ambiguity to each piece - it is a symbol of the pains of growing up, spreading one's wings, and coming off to finally take full responsibility."
/ Prof. Theo Smeets
