Like buds unfurling, flowers sprout from fingertips, unveiling prickly stamens. These glasswares possess a luminous beauty, with a mesmerising metallic look, seeming to embody life's primordial impulses in their very form.

　　This subtle vitality comes from artist Binghui Song’s studio, where metal, enamel and glass are turned into works of art. Beginning her career in jewellery and metalwork, she has since expanded her repertoire to include glass and clay, materials with which she began to experiment during the introspective period of lockdown in 2022. Unburdened from formal technical training at school, Song’s recent works can appear an instinctive impulse borders on naivety and creation, which comes from nature rather than art, almost as though the materials are speaking to us in their own voices.

　　The pieces are part sculpture, part organic growth, and seem to follow rules of their own making. Otherworldly, yet reminiscent of subterranean crystals, extraterrestrial plants, or forms of life usually observable only in microscopic images. Struck by a visceral connection to the integrity of these works, I found myself drawn into a world where the alien “things” – before assigning names to them – becomes rather familiar. Like any living beings, they are full of energy, bearing an unfettered and provocative force. And life itself thrives for its own sake at all costs after all, slowly expanding their territories in space, evolving into a series of ten, a hundred pieces.

　　Such is a palpable tension in Song's work. The vitality of unknown creatures. An aggressive nature with a deadly beauty that not only captivates us as the viewer, but also seems to engulf the artist herself as they mirror Song's own thorny personality while seeking tranquility in the process of shaping the fluid materials.

Psychedelic Blaze, Binghui Song, Clay and Bismuth, 2022

　　Somehow absorbed, we see the psychedelic series, showing its core interests at the root of life and vitality. Originally titled “Psychedelic Blaze”, the dazzling gloss and scarlet-red spikes are condensed by heating the glass to high temperature. Be not a predetermined plan or ideal form, Song creates in a seemingly random manner. Layers of spikes cover the surface of the work, with the flaming crimson colour manifesting signs of danger. Thorns, tentacles. The tendrils may extend endlessly, yet they cautiously curl inward, protecting and avoiding the exposure of their innermost parts. Hidden beneath intense black until wrapped in metallic brilliance, they shield their soft underbelly.

　　A dichotomy appears between apparent arbitrary configuration and the pursuit of perfection through precise control reflects Song's own nature – her rebellious spirit while finding harmony with the disciplined demands of her craft. These newly arrived life forms – now we can call them by their names, Psychedelic – are also probing their surroundings, slowly reaching out with their tentacles, baring their fangs. Therefore, within the artist’s studio, it is an experiment in material resilience and in the mysteries of life that we visit and witness for ourselves. Molten glass weaves threads through the air, then solidifying into crystalline traces of life, reminiscent of strands or veins with blood coursing through them. As the material cools, the artist's touch becomes evident in every curve and spike, each one a testament to the accurate control of her fingertips. But these sharp edges might turn back to sting the artist’s hands, and so we see piles of discarded works, all sacrifices in the pursuit of perfection. An unfettered spirit dwells in a vigilant, self-protective body. This irreconcilable relationship is what I perceive in her work and must have been intuitively captured by the artist as well. Here, finds peace in pure art-making, when the tingling pain and joy of life coexist. Life could persist bearing wounds, while some forms may wither away quietly.

　　We find flower at the end of the journey, captured by their lethal beauty. Pistil, another collection crafted from welded glass beads, exudes a mysterious aura which is not derived from nature’s representation or metaphorical storytelling. Rather, it is the inherent potential for life within them culminates in their full bloom. As the artist states, “Pistil and leaves are beautiful because of their life: they are not my creations, but life itself.” She only knows she must make a hundred, five hundred, countless pieces, as if life’s tenacious self-growth has run away from one’s control.

Pistil, Binghui Song, Beads, 2024

　　As interstitial spaces of the glass strands breathe in light and air, creating a rich palette of colours shimmering within. The metamorphic quality of Song’s sculptures is revealed in the fluidity of her materials, capable of forming myriad shapes and allowing her to create pieces that transcend the rigid nature of their cooled states as they might look like.

　　These works often take months to complete. A works-in-progress collection entitled Abyss reveals the primitive nature of her art pieces. Beneath the roughness of dried clay surfaces lie delicate, crystalline spikes within. The effect is a contrast of something rough yet fragile, exuberant and precise at the same time.

Abyss, Binghui Song, Clay, 2024

　　A celebration of life in all its complexity, these works may not be created in the artist's own image, but the ceaseless flow of life, an intensity that brings to the fore a perpetual process of becoming. Along with the artist's nomad thinking and artistic expression, they manifest in countless pieces that refract the spectrum of her inner world. Spanning sculptural forms, painted canvases, and performances, these artworks orchestrate a symphony of their own presence, at the fingertips of the artist. Each medium becomes a vessel for the pulsating rhythms of existence, channeling the raw essence of creation itself. As such, the artist studio remains a hub of creativity, with her works expected to number in thousands.

About the author

​Ben (Chuan) Qin is a research editor in museum licensing, with a keen focus on contemporary archive- and art-making. His curatorial and writing work covers art schools and ecology. Ben received an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge.