A Matter of Perspective

Yen’s creation explores the connection between human beings and the environment

By Tina Snyder

(Originally Published by MJSA August 2023)

Liaung-Chung Yen

Henrietta, New York

In his “A View from Above” series, Liaung-Chung Yen of Henrietta, New York, explores a variety of landscapes as metaphors for viewing the world from various distances. “It is interesting to see how distance changes peoples’ perspective,” he says. “When we get too close to something, we may get caught up in the details and not view the thing as a whole. Once we step back a little, we can see things more clearly and have a bigger picture of where we stand in the whole environment.”

In the brooch featured here—one of the winners of the 2023 Jose Hess Design Award with the theme “Connections”—Yen explores the relationship between human activity and the environment. Here, the natural world is represented by a thin nellite slice. (Nellite is a quartz silicate that is a combination of tiger eye and pietersite.) Our human impact on the environment is represented by the hollow silver and 22k gold bimetal components and intersecting silver wires.

If you look closely at any section of the piece, there is a stark contrast between the metal component and the stone, but if you step back and take in the piece as a whole, there is a harmony to it—an idyllic balance between human activity and the environment.

To construct the piece, Yen began by fabricating the three bimetal components and wire framework to hold the nellite in place. “I wanted the stone to look as simple as possible, so I built a lot of the structure for the setting on the back (including a steel pin) so I could sandwich the stone between the top and bottom and further hold it in place by bending the wires over the sides like prongs.”

The entire wire framework was depletion gilded—the process of heating sterling silver sufficiently to oxidize the copper in the surface layer of the alloy and then removing that oxidized copper layer by soaking in a mild acid solution (the “depletion”). This process left a thin layer of fine silver on the surface of the metal (the “gilding”), which Yen burnished for contrast.

For the bimetal components, Yen fused 22k gold onto sterling silver sheet and then scored and bent the sheet to create hollow forms. The entire frame was soldered together at many junctures prior to setting the stone to ensure the strength and durability of the piece, completing Yen’s commentary on the connection between human beings and the environment.