Ellen Yiu

Ellen Yiu

Selected Portfolio

Artists’ books

Lining Revealed

Lining Revealed examines the interactions between folk craft and contemporary art by juxtaposing artworks, handicrafts and archival documents. Through the critical lens and creative manifestations of contemporary art, it reveals the historical, social and cultural significance embodied in folk craft and the role craft plays in reinvigorating contemporary vision...

Kunstlinie & NDSM Fuse

What does hope look like in a broken world? And how can art help us imagine a future that is hopeful, and at the same time realistic? The group exhibition RE:FWD: A Reply to the Present, A Forward to Us All brings together hopeful future prospects from 21 young artists.

Exhibition view at Prospects

“The objects created by Ellen Yiu could be described as miniatures. Larger originals of these small objects exist. Her artistic practice focuses on interpreting small objects. She alters the meaning of these objects by changing their scale, making unexpected combinations, or creating something entirely new.”

This World and the Next

Willem Twee Kunstruimte, Den Bosch

‘The distance between this world and the next is only separated by a piece of paper’ - Cantonese phrase
(陰陽兩界只隔一層紙)

This solo show explores this saying as a chance to consider the ‘inbetweenness’ of various aspects of my practise, be it a small sculpture, a large gesture through installation, the theological or spiritual aspects of the self, or the ‘worlds’ that meets between these spaces.

Breathing moving book

Exhibition at Art Rotterdam

_{A automated moving book programmed to open and close at the frequency of slow breathing, around 6BPM. It is embroidered with symbols that relate to longevity, such as the flow of the meridian system, acupuncture points and the cosmos.

45 x 60 cm

arduino, embroidery, copper}

Exhibition view at Object Rotterdam

Press release (Dutch)
Press release (English)

Photos by Ilco Kemmere

Project: Po Kit Pills

Miniature installation

Po Chai Pills (保濟丸) are a staple of Hong Kong household remedy that ‘cures all’. I changes the name from 保濟丸 to 保潔丸, a pun that means both ‘cleaning’ and ‘protect Ellen’, because 潔 is my chinese name. The pills both cleanse me from my illness and protect me.

I replaced the portrait of the original with the portrait of my doctor’s, and altered the text to my own personal usage. The contents of the bottles are replaced with a mixture of sugar and diluted formula of my medicine.

Hong Kong, Netherlands