Yibei Liu

CSM, BA Ceramic Design, 2018-2023

Biography from the artist: Yibei Liu (1998) is a figurative sculptor. She has always been interested in the human conditions. The curiosity about human behaviors and emotions becomes the nutrient for her creative process. The project “… …” shows a series of abstract figurative sculptures that visualize the feelings of being trapped in negative emotional loops. In self-healing, the artist hopes to open more dialogues and arouse public awareness of mental illness. Wishing to convey the message of “you are not alone” to the audience.

Driven by impulses and inertia, people rarely slow down to think about the meanings and reasons behind their actions and emotions. As a child, the artist constantly asked herself: ‘why people do what they do?’ and’ why they feel what they feel’. Her current project serves as a starting point for further exploration of these questions. It is a personal documentary of her understanding of human conditions and records her study on finding the relationship between emotions, actions, and the psychological reasons behind them.


“. . . . . .”
“People come and go; emotions, they appear and disappear. If we watch our past like watching a movie, all the love and hate, sorrow and joy, pain and struggles, are the rich moments that make up our lives. My pursuit is to capture those moments. I take my personal understanding of the human condition and coil them up with clay.

Coiling is a slow-growing process. Unlike other techniques in ceramic, coiling gives me time to think, rethink, refine, and constantly make changes and decisions during the making process. Just like all those moments when we need to make a decision or change in our life, they build on each other, leading to this moment. However, like every technique, coiling up a piece takes me through all the emotions. The frustration of the collapse of clay; the depression of continued failure; the surprise from a new glaze that turned out perfect; the happiness and gratification of completing a work, etc. This makes my final output comes from my most profound experiences. By exposing my truest emotions and feelings to the audience, I wish they will be able to relate to a certain feeling, a feeling that can only be understood by heart, but not words.