Revolving Vase (Round Trip)
Completed
2025
Medium
pine crate wood from Wing On Wo & Co., natural and dyed wood veneer, polywood, hardware, rosewood stand
Dimensions
22"x 12"x 12"
Cost
Price on Request
Description
Expressed through a continuous reconfiguration of wood, my work explores the mechanics of identity formation. I create abstract optical sculptures and intricate self-portraits that reveal and conceal the female body, investigating notions of visibility/invisibility within the context of my identity as a queer Asian woman. My most recent series of crate wood vessels, consists of vessels crafted from reclaimed wooden crates gifted to me by Wing on Wo & Co. (W.O.W.), the oldest storefront in Manhattan's Chinatown since 1890. For this series, crate panels are carefully deconstructed, cut into faceted pieces, and reassembled to echo the ceramic vessels they once held. This meticulous process preserves the crates' stampings and markings—tangible traces of their journey from Asia to the United States—symbolically reflecting the migration stories of the Lum Family at W.O.W. and my own.
About this Artist
Vivian Chiu
Vivian Chiu (b. 1989) was born in Los Angeles and emigrated to Hong Kong at the age of three. Her interests in creating objects and the visual arts led her to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA ’11 Furniture Design) and Columbia University (MFA ’19 Sculpture). Vivian uses labor-intensive, repetitive processes to create optical sculptures from wood. She has attended residencies such as Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Penland School of Crafts, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Sculpture Space, Haystack Mountain School, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, and the Museum for Art in Wood. She was awarded a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture, a 2023-24 VMFA Fellowship and was a third place recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Award for Sculpture. Her work is part of the permanent collections of Museum for Art in Wood, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Arkansas Museum…
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