Angelina Chen

Textiles (MA)
Portrait of the designer
A series of knitted samples exploring emotional contradictions through material, shape, and form. The works combine soft yarn with fragile elements like broken mirrors, ceramic fragments, sharp pins, and roughly textured stone. Rounded, curved, and angular forms reflect emotional tension not only through surface, but through structure — shaping comfort, pressure, and defense into physical form.
A series of knitted samples exploring emotional contradictions through material, shape, and form. The works combine soft yarn with fragile elements like broken mirrors, ceramic fragments, sharp pins, and roughly textured stone. Rounded, curved, and angular forms reflect emotional tension not only through surface, but through structure — shaping comfort, pressure, and defense into physical form.
'Sweet Pain, in All Directions' 2025
A knitted cube composed of six different surfaces, each exploring a unique material and emotional contradiction. Soft wool is combined with spikes, netted yarn, and padded forms. Each side reflects a different kind of tension — between softness and pain, safety and threat, attraction and resistance. The cube structure unifies these opposing designs into one solid yet vulnerable form.
A knitted cube composed of six different surfaces, each exploring a unique material and emotional contradiction. Soft wool is combined with spikes, netted yarn, and padded forms. Each side reflects a different kind of tension — between softness and pain, safety and threat, attraction and resistance. The cube structure unifies these opposing designs into one solid yet vulnerable form.
Soft Doesn’t Mean Safe — six contradictions held in one rigid form.
A solid knitted cone structure made with mohair yarn, using elastic knitting to form pocket-like areas that contain hidden pins. The surface is visually soft, but the form is weighty, stable, and sharply defined. The cone shape itself holds contradiction — grounded and firm in structure, yet visually tense due to its pointed peak. This work expresses conflict through material contrast, inner pressure, and formal balance.
A solid knitted cone structure made with mohair yarn, using elastic knitting to form pocket-like areas that contain hidden pins. The surface is visually soft, but the form is weighty, stable, and sharply defined. The cone shape itself holds contradiction — grounded and firm in structure, yet visually tense due to its pointed peak. This work expresses conflict through material contrast, inner pressure, and formal balance.
Form Studies II – Grounded, But Not Safe
Three knitted shapes designed as emotional form studies. Each shape is a deliberate combination of curves and angles, exploring internal contradiction within a single silhouette. The forms represent tension held inside shape itself — neither fully soft nor sharp, but both at once.
Three knitted shapes designed as emotional form studies. Each shape is a deliberate combination of curves and angles, exploring internal contradiction within a single silhouette. The forms represent tension held inside shape itself — neither fully soft nor sharp, but both at once.
Shape Studies — when softness and sharpness coexist in one line.
A series of knitted samples exploring emotional contradictions through material, shape, and form. The works combine soft yarn with fragile elements like broken mirrors, ceramic fragments, sharp pins, and roughly textured stone. Rounded, curved, and angular forms reflect emotional tension not only through surface, but through structure — shaping comfort, pressure, and defense into physical form.
A knitted cube composed of six different surfaces, each exploring a unique material and emotional contradiction. Soft wool is combined with spikes, netted yarn, and padded forms. Each side reflects a different kind of tension — between softness and pain, safety and threat, attraction and resistance. The cube structure unifies these opposing designs into one solid yet vulnerable form.
A solid knitted cone structure made with mohair yarn, using elastic knitting to form pocket-like areas that contain hidden pins. The surface is visually soft, but the form is weighty, stable, and sharply defined. The cone shape itself holds contradiction — grounded and firm in structure, yet visually tense due to its pointed peak. This work expresses conflict through material contrast, inner pressure, and formal balance.
Three knitted shapes designed as emotional form studies. Each shape is a deliberate combination of curves and angles, exploring internal contradiction within a single silhouette. The forms represent tension held inside shape itself — neither fully soft nor sharp, but both at once.

About

Angelina is a textile designer whose work exists at the intersection of design and art. For her, knitting is not just a technique — it is her language. It’s how she processes emotions, tells stories, and makes sense of the world around and within her. She uses form, shape, colour, and material to translate emotional experience into physical expression. Her practice is grounded in personal memory, emotional tension, and the quiet act of making as a way to reflect, reconnect, and release.

During her time at the Royal College of Art, she began to explore emotional contradiction more deeply — particularly how opposing materials, forms, and colours can reflect the inner conflict between comfort and discomfort, closeness and pain. Her recent series Sweet Pain investigates this duality through sculptural knit works that combine soft yarn with fragile elements such as broken mirrors, pins, and stone — offering a tactile language for the complexity of love. Through material experimentation and emotional mapping, she has developed a personal vocabulary of contrasts: soft and sharp, curved and angular, delicate and heavy.

Angelina hopes that in seeing her work, others may feel a little less alone. She creates for those who have lived through emotional confusion and intensity, and for those still learning how to hold all that feeling inside. Her textiles are an offering — not just to be seen, but to be felt.

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