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Handcrafted silver jewelry revealing intimate parts of your bodyYuyen Chang´s handcrafted silver jewelry debates “politically correct” assumptions about the human body and social relationships. 
She invites you to gaze at deformity and abnormality, present in our world but always shut away for no one to see. Yuyen plays with our own unawareness or unconsciousness about the uniqueness of our bodies. We are slaves of beauty, youth and physical perfection, to a standard that is precisely unnatural. She adorns you physically with her amazing handcrafted silver jewelry but also questions you openly: what are you ornamenting, the nice you or the real you?
A career full of achievementsYuyen Chang was born in Taiwan and moved to Wisconsin in 1990.She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison art metals graduate program and received her MFA in fall 2002.
Chang was also awarded the UW Haystack Fellowship and Vilas Graduate Fellowship. She was also finalist in the 2001 and 2003 NICHE Award, what a record!
A frequently ignored subject matter for jewelry makingMoral obligations about intimate parts of your body and the ornamental nature of jewelry are Chang´s trademark theme. She tries to connect two dissimilar desires and by doing that Chang reveals a social contradiction.On the one hand, there’s your desire for jewelry as a means of personal adornment and expression but on the other hand, you dismiss it if it displays a physical mark. 
People show-off their jewelry. The appeal, acceptance and interest that jewelry arises in viewers is exactly the opposite reaction towards seeing scars, wounds, wrinkles and blemishes. Chang gives a fantastic explanation of her message. In her artist statement she says: “The visual reference of my work is deliberately ambiguous, though the inspiration mostly comes from physical traits that I find intriguing. Conceptually, I intend for these pieces to be at once unsettling and beautiful. This juxtaposition alludes to the way scars are formed from wounds. While they record the painful experience of an injury, they also symbolize the body’s power for self-healing and its vital potential for growth”.
She also says that: “Generally in my metalwork, I tend to favor fabrication techniques. As a metalsmith, I value a great deal the traditional or ancient practices, such as the Japanese chasing and repoussé techniques used to create some of these pieces. I derive a tremendous amount of satisfaction from maintaining a direct and intimate connection with my material”.
Harvesting success from being true to her design motivationChang´s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has participated in SOFA Chicago and SOFA New York. Her work can be found at Aaron Faber and Velvet Da Vinci Gallery; and at various museums and Arts Centers.
Her work has been featured in Metalsmith Magazine “Exhibition in Print” 2002 and “Observations” 2003. Chang also teaches metalsmithing at Central Oregon Community College. In 2003 Chang was winner if the Emerging Artist Award. Interestingly, this award’s pursuit is to acknowledge innovation and individuality in the work of emerging jewelry artists and to help to advance the artist’s career.
Mia McEldowney who led the judges’ decision, said the following about Chang´s work, as found in ArtJewelryForum.org: “The work of artist Yuyen Chang was of consistently high quality and finesse combined with a fresh approach to art jewelry. In the best of traditions, the pieces are strongly sculptural but eminently wearable. The surfaces were handled beautifully and not overworked”. For more info on that award,
go here.
Participating and sharing studio lifeMetalpeople in Madison is a metalsmithing studio found by Paulette Werger, Lynn Whitford and Agnes Chwae.In Ganoksin I found that Chang became the newest addition to the team in early 2003.
“artist’s with shared sensibilities and needs often come together to form co-operative studios in order to reduce overhead costs, share equipment and develop a greater sense of community”. I find this co-operative studio thing very interesting (just like Blanche Tilden and Phoebe´s experience) and will try to write an article about that soon for your reference.
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Chang has received many grants and awards in her career, mainly the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) Educational Endowment and the SNAG Minority Scholarship. 
