The Queue: Vivian Chiu
Get to know the people featured in the pages of our magazine as they share what's inspiring them right now.
The Queue: Vivian Chiu
Vivian Chiu with vessels from her Passages (those that carried us) series. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Vivian Chiu’s wooden vessels and sculptures represent passages across oceans and time.
Vivian Chiu sculpts her history and identity in wood. Born in Los Angeles and raised in her parents’ homeland of Hong Kong, her artistic practice is influenced at every turn by migration and heritage. Chiu returned to the US for college, where she studied woodworking at Rhode Island School of Design with 2024 ACC Fellow Yuri Kobayashi, among others. “She was truly the representation I needed to use my passion for woodworking to make conceptual sculptures,” Chiu says about Kobayashi. Frequent American Craft contributor Claire Voon wrote about Chiu’s Passages (those that carried us), a series of vessels fashioned from shipping crates used to ship porcelain and other goods from China to Wing on Wo & Co. in New York City’s Chinatown, in “Containing Memories” in the Fall 2024 issue of American Craft. A second iteration of the series will appear as a solo exhibition at Penland School of Craft in the summer of 2025.
Chiu labels pieces of the wooden crates from Wing on Wo for use in her sculptural vessels. Photo by Vivian Chiu.
How do you describe your work or practice in 50 words or less?
Using wood as my primary medium, my optical self-portrait sculptures explore ideas of visibility and invisibility in relation to my identity as a queer Asian woman. I recontextualize traditional woodworking techniques into contemporary sculptures that address themes of perception, disorientation, and camouflage. I am interested in the mechanics of how we form our identities.
Tell us about the craft scene in Richmond. What drew you to it? What keeps you in it?
After the COVID pandemic, I finally decided to rent my own studio space and write grants to purchase large woodworking machines. Richmond is quite affordable and I am slowly building out my woodshop in a way that I can’t imagine leaving. Plus my partner, our dog, and our cat love it here as well.
What are your favorite tools for working with wood?
My favorite tool is my SawStop table saw that I was able to purchase through a CultureWorks grant in Richmond. I usually design projects with many small geometric units, so the SawStop allows me to get accurate cuts safely. I also highly recommend a jointer-planer combo, which saves a lot of space.
What are the biggest technical challenges of your work?
Staying focused on multiple technical processes at once. When I am working on multiple crate-wood vessels, I use hand-labeled stickers to keep track of every piece (a single vessel can have more than 200 pieces). I learned how to label and multitask when I worked for Ursula von Rydingsvard for five years.
If you could have work from any contemporary craft artist in your home, whose would it be and why?
How can I pick one? Stephanie H. Shih’s ceramic pieces. Pauline Shaw’s felt work. Michelle Im’s new figurative work is fantastic. Heechan Kim’s sculptures are amazing. Anything by Jennifer Ling Datchuk and Yuri Kobayashi. I would definitely need a bigger home!
Which craft artists, exhibitions, or projects do you think the world should know about, and why?
The Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia is one to visit. They have great exhibitions, it is free to the public, and I have a piece in their permanent collection upstairs. I would also follow curator Sarah Darro’s innovative work at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. I would also check out artists from the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artist Cohort. All artists from the last four cohorts are incredible and continue to inspire me!
Inclination, 2018, maple, paint, 48 x 48 x 16 in. Photo by Vivian Chiu.
Chiu’s work was a part of This Side Up, a 2024 installation at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft that featured the work of art handlers and exhibition installers, as well as work informed by the behind-the-scenes labor of the art industry. Photo by Vivian Chiu.
Tianqiuping Vase I, 16 x 11 x 11 in., is pictured next to a fragment of the pine crate from which Chiu made it. Photo by Vivian Chiu.
ADVERTISEMENT
Want to learn more about all of the craft artists you love?
Become an ACC member to receive a complimentary subscription to American Craft magazine and gain complimentary access to our shows, travel deals, and more!
