BIO
Originally from China, Rachel Yan Gu is a ceramic artist inspired by eastern and western philosophy and aesthetics. She received a BFA in Ceramics at China Academy of Art (CCA), Hangzhou, China, before earning her MFA in Ceramics at the School for American Crafts (SAC) in the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY in 2020. She worked as a studio manager in Yates County Art Center in 2021. Currently she is studying in Art Education PhD Program in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Artist Statement
The surface of the world is composed of innumerable points which may be abstracted for the sake of comprehension, like molecules, numbers, and pixels, they may also be an apple, a road, or a single person. Under these points, there are numerous nets, which are independent but also link everything together. They combine all of the numerous points together and are the foundation of the points. I hope to see the nets through the points to explore the core of the world underneath.
I reconstruct the points and nets to create a visual representation of their relationships within our physical reality. My interpretation is a representation of my thoughts of these points in the world and my respect for them. They all come from a symbol that I created, which is extracted from my existence and presents the essence of my thought. In the process of the repetition, it evolves and turns into a practical life, which becomes my avatar and shares the same soul with me.