- Yitong Zhang wins 2020 Award for “A Part, Not Apart” silver vase
- Award follows her success in the Goldsmiths Craft and Design Awards earlier this year
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| A Part, Not Apart, Yitong Zhang’s award-winning silver vases |
“Mindful of the properties of silver ‘A Part, Not Apart’ contrasts a complex shape with organic forms. Yitong’s clever use of silver’s reflective properties resulted in a striking design which mirrors colour – a clear winner.”
Judges for the Goldsmiths’ Company Silversmithing Award
The Glasgow School of Art’s success in the Goldsmiths’ Company Awards at New Designers continued this year as 2020 Silversmithing & Jewellery graduate, Yitong Zhang, scooped the prestigious Silversmithing Award. The accolade follows on the designer’s success in the Goldsmiths Craft and Design Awards – the jewellery “Oscars” – earlier in the year where she picked up bronze in the Small Works category.
Yitong’s success marks the fifth time in six years that a graduate of The Glasgow School of Art has won the Goldsmiths’ Company Silversmithing Award. Yitong follows in the footsteps of Harriet Jenkins (2019), Rachel Hardie (2018), Andrew Fleming (2017) and Karen Westland (2015)
This year for the Goldsmiths’ Company Award the young designers were asked to submit work on the theme of community. Yitong Zhang took the interdependent relationship of communities during Covid-19 times as the starting point for her silver vase: A Part, Not Apart. The design also continues her investigation of people’s relationships with everyday objects, exploring the complexity and contradictoriness in our desire and character as reflected by the objects we live with.
“The highly interdependent relationships among different life reminded me of flowers as a metaphor, which are usually tied into a bunch,” explains Yitong. “With a focus on the shape of the packaging of a bouquet and the quality of metal, my ideas developed into the design for a flower vase.”
“My final designs consist of three soldered folded parts. The top front part of the left is folded into a curved smooth form, presenting the quality of packaging paper. The right one is in irregular geometric shapes. The vases are made of silver with the inside highly-polished and, to form a visual contrast, the outside is shown with sandpaper effect.”
“My ‘A part, not apart’ design implies the interdependent relationship of many communities from a perspective of human beings.”
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Yitong Zhang (second from the left) with other GSA winners
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in the 2020 Goldsmiths Craft and Design Awards 2020
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“We are delighted that Yitong has won the Goldsmiths’ Company Award at New Designers continuing the GSA’s success in this prestigious award,” says Anna Gordon, Head of Silversmithing and Jewellery at The Glasgow School of Art. ” It is wonderful to see her building on her success at the Goldsmiths Craft and Design Awards – the jewellery ‘Oscars’ – earlier this year,”
“As a designer Yitong has a deep understanding of the special properties of precious metals which is illustrated perfectly in her A Part, Not Apart design,” she adds. “We wish her every success as she now sets out on her career as a professional designer.”
See more work by Yitong on The Glasgow School of Art Graduate Showcase: https://gsashowcase.net/yitong-zhang/
Ends
Lesley Booth
07799414474
press@gsa.ac.uk
@GSofAMedia
Notes for Editors
Yitong Zhang
A 2020 graduate of The Glasgow School of Art, Yitong Zhuan has already had significant success as a practitioner. In 2018, she went to California College of the Arts as an exchange student, where she started to practice with everyday objects and materials. In the same year, she won the Friends of The Glasgow School of Art Travel Bursary Award. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Outstanding Scottish Student of the Year Award. Her her works have been exhibited in the Itami International Jewellery Exhibition, Japan and in the Goldsmiths’ Hall, London. She won the bronze medal in the Small Works category of the Goldsmiths Craft and Design awards for her “In the Bottle Cap” collection in February 2020.
The Goldsmiths’ Company Silversmithing Award Prize:
- One-week of work experience in a professional jewellery workshop at the Goldsmiths’ Centre
- A bursary of up to £500 towards living expenses is available to support the winner for the work experience week in London.
- A place on Getting Started 2020.
- A Laser AND Punch Hallmarking Package for free.
- Free access to the Goldsmiths’ Company Library and its resources.