Yixuan He

About

Yixuan He is a visual artist currently based in London and studying at the Royal College of Art. His identity spans across artist, painter, specimen preparator, and collector. He is particularly drawn to objects and fragments found in daily life and nature, and his practice is deeply informed by archaeology, biology, and emotional memory.He often begins his process by collecting: dead crabs, bones, shells, rusted tools, broken ceramics, and other overlooked or decaying materials. These found or prepared objects are not merely materials but carry silent Artist Statement narratives, traces of time, and embedded meanings. Through sensitive arrangement, repetition, and reconstruction, Yixuan transforms the ordinary into poetic systems—systems that reflect both the fragility and resilience of natural and human-made worlds. His recent works span sculpture, printmaking, rubbing, and specimen-making. One project involved constructing a clay cube that represented an idealized, internal structure of civilization— orderly and self-contained. He later broke the form apart, exposing its fragile inner structure to light, shadows, and fragmentation, symbolizing how systems of control and meaning can collapse, yet remain beautiful in their ruins. By working across materials and processes, Yixuan continually explores how physical matter can act as a medium for memory, emotion, and associative storytelling. His practice seeks to bridge the rational and the intuitive, inviting viewers into a space where decay becomes form, and preservation becomes a gesture of care and contemplation