Caiyang Yin (also know as Curtis Yin) is a contemporary jewellery artist now based in the U.K. He focuses on both playfulness and aesthetics in his work. Most of his work is tightly related to kinetic structures and presented with engineering aesthetics. In his recent mental well-being originated project 'HEALPER', he designs and makes a series of kinetic movements where interaction created between the objects and the audience. About the main idea of the project, he says,'By playing with these pieces, the audience can finally focus on some real stuff rather than various of digital screens, even though these movements cannot produce profit, but they can bring you at least moment of peace and relaxation.
He started the journey of art under the influence of his family. Since 5 years old, he had begun to learn some traditional Chinese water ink painting skills along with some calligraphy techniques. When he was 10, he had his first sketching lesson and kept his passion for art during the following years yet still did not make the decision to work as an artist in the future.
Caiyang got fascinated with hip-hop culture when he entered middle school which initialized his sense of street art. Starting from rap music, he tried to understand hip-hop as a genre of art but not only a type of music, just like the painting and calligraphy he was familiar with. After graduating from high school, he started to work as a part-time painter, taking commissions of oil paintings, acrylic paintings. It was also in that summer taht he take up graffiti.
He was admitted to China University of Geosciences(don't question the spell of this phrase if you want to, I swear it is the official translation) in 2011, majoring in jewellery design. In Caiyang's university years, he developed a proper skill set of a young jeweller, and showed his preference in contemporary art jewellery than traditional commercial style. In this stage, his work showed some minimalism and geometric aesthetics. In his bachelor degree collection 'Silent Beats Trilogy', he tried to express the rhythm of Chinese traditional poetry with a series of geometry forms connected by the audio wires from his worn Beats by Dr.Dre headphones. In this collection, the combination of the visual, auditory and tactile experiences are presented progressively in the three parts of it, this is also the first time he tried to work with the combo of metal and flexible materials.
In Caiyang's first year of his master degree in China, he decided to finish earning all the credits necessary for graduation and then apply for an opportunity of abroad further study. In this period, he developed his research of kinetic jewellery due to the passion for mechanical stuff and the interactive artwork. It was the first time that he applied some simple kinetic structures in his work, the 'Knee Jerk' brooch. Moreover, he also gained some chasing techniques and ceramic jewellery making experience, which can be found in his 'Face' series.
In the summer of 2016, Caiyang finally made his decision to go to Edinburgh College of art to carry on his study of contemporary jewellery. He still worked on his beloved kinetic things as well as other crafts such as enameling and working with plastics, which all contributed to his later projects. Caiyang graduated from ECA in June of 2018 with his final degree project 'HEALPER'. This time he set his eyes on people's mental health, and tried to help people feel better from the negative emotions in daily life with his interactive kinetic jewellery pieces.
In the future Caiyang chooses to stay real as a young man. He believes an artist's work reveals his/her soul. He will try to bring some street art to his future work, maybe combined with some new kinetic elements. And he said he will be more humble in the future(thanks Kendrick Lamar).
Education Background:
2011-2015 Bachelor of Art in China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)
2016-2018 Master of Fine Art in University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh College of Art)
2015- Master of Fine Art in China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) （In progress）
Awards and Exhibitions:
several but all history now so not listed here
and also because Curtis is a man who always looks to the future and seldom looks back.