World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 506 - Ellen Yiu
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World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 506 – Ellen Yiu
Ellen Yiu was selected for the Piket Art Prize Painting 2024, together with Shani Leseman and Adam Centko. And she won it. She received a prize of 6,000 euros and a unique work of art, the Hammer, designed and made by artist Joep van Lieshout.
Could she have imagined that at the age of 6 when she walked into a friend’s textile workshop in Hong Kong, where she originally comes from? “That’s where I learned to weave, spin yarn, dye fabrics and sew,” she says.
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A cultural collection
She finds inspiration in the stories and experiences that have shaped her life, she continues. “I’m very inspired by material culture and the stories behind cultural objects and overlooked materials – a kind of cultural collecting. These range from stories of growing up in Hong Kong, followed by experiences abroad in the UK, France and the Netherlands since I was 12.”
These can include issues such as identity, health and family. “I balance them with humour and frame it with the suggestion of functionality, which makes the work both poignant and accessible.”
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A visual diary
Because her themes are personal and introspective, it allows her to delve deeply into herself and visualize her perspective on the human experience. “I see it as a kind of visual diary that tells in an ongoing and profound exploration what it means to see the world through my lens. I think these intimate and personal works have a universal impact because they are vulnerable themes – belonging, memory, connection, and the relationship we have with our environment and our bodies. In other words, my works reflect and engage with the evolving dialogue between tradition and modernity, and the role of materials in shaping identity and collective memory.”
Does Ellen have a key work, and if so, what is it?
Her key work changes and evolves quite often. You have to experience the totality of her works, she says. “For example, ‘take my home away’ is a collection of small miniature works that I have made over many years, which were exhibited together as a decentralized installation in one space. It is essentially uncategorizable, it is a visual assemblage that ranged from labor-intensive embroideries and wood carvings and miniature books, to refurbished found objects and plant material.”
Ellen has been active as an artist for three years now. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and previously spent a year at an art school in Paris.
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Long hours of labor
The process of making is very important in her work, she concludes. “It involves many long hours of labor and love and attention to small details. Often it can involve many hours of performing repetitive tasks, such as sewing together small pieces of fabric, folding thousands of sheets of paper or making small intricate drawings. It is a daily routine. The making is as much a part of the work as the end result.”
See also the video: https://vimeo.com/1017123241
https://ellenyiu.com/
https://www.piketkunstprijzen.nl/ellen-yiu-ik-maak-universele-verhalen-van-kleine-details
https://www.instagram.com/ellennyiu/
https://inzaken.eu/2025/01/03/ellen-yiu-maakt-een-visueel-dagboek-van-haar-ervaringen/
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