Winner – 2024 RMIT Gold & Silversmithing Studio Prize
Since 2020, Letitia has shown abroad, with her work exhibited in group shows at OCAD University in Canada, Dunedin School of Art in New Zealand, and another group show curated by Craft Victoria in Australia. Letitia values traditional culture, memories, and emotions. In her most recent work Fade Away, Letitia is experimenting with silver, enamel powder, and borosilicate glass to recreate the old-fashioned toys her great-grandmother gifted her at each Spring Festival. This piece intends to sustain family traditions, which have become fragile owing to her great-grandmother’s passing, strike a chord with everyone who has comparable good memories, and heighten this sensory stimulation.
Her other project, Tooth, Tooth, Throw It Onto The Roof, explores the Chinese tradition of dealing with fallen baby teeth: throwing the lower baby teeth onto the roof and the upper ones under the bed to relieve children of the fear of losing teeth and to bless that permanent teeth do not grow crooked. The motivation for the project stems from the ongoing demolition of her old Shikumen house due to the government renovation program targeting dilapidated and precarious structures. The fragility of the tradition is revealed and her nostalgia is aroused when reflecting on it. Thus, this project was born as an archive of the tradition and her memories.
instagram.com/letitiashen.jewellery
