LONDON.- In a world that often races past the subtle textures of daily life, London-based artist Yijia Wu invites us to pause and truly see. Her recent portfolio is a compelling journey into the heart of everydayness, migration, and the ever-shifting notion of “home” — revealing an attuned attention to the mundane that elevates ordinary materials into quietly resonant narratives.



Born in China in 1997, Wu’s multidisciplinary practice, spanning performance, sculpture, and installation, showcases her unique ability to weave cultural significance into the most unassuming domestic objects. Her visual language, a fascinating blend of the absurd and the familiar, simultaneously evokes nostalgia while firmly rooting itself in the present. As an artist in residence at Sarabande Foundation and a graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, Wu’s academic rigour underpins an approach that is both sophisticated and remarkably accessible, making her work a standout in the contemporary art scene.



The Pear and the Poignancy of Separation

Central to Wu’s exploration of identity and connection is her ongoing One Pear a Year Project, a series spanning 2023 to 2025. Works like Se(pear)ate (2025), Pair? Pear? (2024), and A Pear is not a Pair (2023) intricately play with linguistic and cultural dualities. Crafted from materials like carved alabaster stone, silver, brass, and spalted wood, these pieces use the humble pear as a powerful motif to explore themes of separation and unity. “Sometimes I think back and wonder whether offering too many pears somehow foretold our distance,” Wu reflects, explaining the inspiration behind creating a stone pear that “cannot be shared,” embodying the tension between longing and loss. The delicate interplay of materials, from alabaster’s soft translucence to the metallic sheen of silver, creates a tactile paradox mirroring the emotional complexities of migration.



Soap as Metaphor: The Fragility of Home

Wu’s fascination with domestic objects extends to her innovative and poignant use of soap. In works such as Soap Tiles(2023–2025), Soap Tiles — Performance (2025), and the Soap Bowl series (2023–2025), soap’s transient, dissolvable nature becomes a potent metaphor for impermanence and the inherent fragility of “home”.

“Where is home when all the tiles melt?” Wu asks, as she performs with Soap Tiles, watching the handmade soap erode, their boundaries blurring. As the tiles melt during the performance, their physical boundaries blur — mirroring the shifting, fluid nature of what home has come to mean in her practice. No longer fixed or singular, the idea of home becomes something in motion — melting, reforming, enacted rather than permanent. Similarly, the Soap Bowl series transforms functional domestic objects into fragile vessels of memory and identity, each carved from soap, embodying the tension between utility and ephemerality.



The Weight of Belonging: Baggage and Bridges

Wu’s exploration of migration culminates in compelling works like Check-in Luggage (2023) and Three Homes (2023). For Check-in Luggage, Wu embeds stones collected from her travels into a soap suitcase, mirroring the dimensions of airline carry-on. The piece functions both as a literal container and as a metaphor for the emotional and psychological weight of dislocation. The juxtaposition of durable stone with fragile soap underscores the duality of resilience and vulnerability, a recurring theme in her practice. Similarly, Three Homes, crafted from alabaster and sandstone, reflects the multiplicity of belonging — geographical, emotional, or imagined — resonating with the universal yet deeply personal experience of displacement.



Beyond the Mundane: Ladders, Kites, and Cutlery

Wu’s versatility shines through works like Kite (2023) and Ladder with a Gap (2023), crafted from mild steel, brass, and silver. The kite, a symbol of freedom, is grounded by its metallic construction, while the ladder’s gap speaks to both aspiration and the barriers encountered in the pursuit of belonging. Her Cutleries series (2023–2024) transforms everyday utensils into objects of contemplation, elevating the domestic to the poetic.

In her performance work, such as Dishwashing (2023), Wu engages with the meditative nature of routine tasks, further blurring the line between art and life. This thoughtful engagement highlights her belief that “art can gently invite dialogues that might not surface in everyday life”.

Yijia Wu’s practice traces the quiet poetics of the everyday, revealing layers of meaning embedded in the overlooked and ordinary. Through her attuned handling of materials and her nuanced reflections on migration and home, she weaves a visual language that is at once deeply personal and quietly resonant. Wu’s work invites viewers to linger with the mundane, to rethink the contours of home, and to sit with the gentle tensions of presence and absence — offering tender reflections on identity and belonging in a world shaped by quiet shifts and constant movement.