Yang Liujing (b. 1986) comes from a family that has produced tin ware since 1853. Born and brought up in the ancient city of Quanzhou in Fujian Province, China, she began her studies at Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan in 2018 in order to gain expertise that would allow her to inherit and develop the family business. The two-part medal – in effect two medals – now issued by BAMS was made while she was a research student at the university and was entered into the 2019 BAMS Student Medal Project, where it won the ‘best guest’ prize for excellence in the medallic medium.
The artist writes: ‘The earth is 4.6 billion years old and has given birth to countless lives. After experiencing natural disasters such as climate change, volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts, many of the animals became extinct, while the ancestors of humans survived, continued to evolve and eventually created a civilization. In order to express my respect for human evolution, I made two medals that can be combined into one, which is inspired by fossils hundreds of millions of years ago.’