Yuka Oyama and the Language of Art

When she returned to Indonesia earlier this year as a guest lecturer in jewelry design and metalwork at a local university, Yuka Oyama (Class of 1992) also found herself revisiting one of the core influences of her lasting artistic journey.

It was during high school, living and learning in this beautiful archipelago as a JIS student, that she deepened her passion and exploration of art and design. 

“Some of my strongest memories of those days were that I only did art,” she recalls with a laugh. “When I moved from the Japanese school to JIS, many of my credits got transferred, so I didn’t have to [...] take a lot of subjects like math, physics, and chemistry — these were not my thing. So, it was possible for me to expand on what I really liked doing. I took photography, IB art, and jewelry — just a lot of art.”

Little did she know that “all that art” would lay the foundations of what would be a prolific, decades-long career. Today, Yuka is a respected artist and professor at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Art and Design in Halle, Germany. Her thought-provoking works come to life through a coalescence of media that include life-sized, wearable sculptures, photography, choreographic experimentation, jewelry, and much more.

Each tells its own distinct story; together they bridge the themes of identity, culture, language, and expression. The inspiration behind them is near and dear to Yuka, having shaped her upbringing and worldview: her experience as a third-culture kid balancing disparate cultures while trying to carve out a home across the globe.

Of Japanese descent, she grew up in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States.

“A lot of my artwork is based on this kind of uprootedness. How do you find a stable ground? And what is stable ground? So, these [questions] serve as a core in my own artwork,” she explains.

She adds that her creative process drives her to explore the ever-evolving answers to these ponderings — which only lead to more questions about what shapes us as multifaceted global citizens. Is it the atmosphere you create around you? Or the constantly shifting sense of self “that actually consists of multiple faces?” Is it also the struggle of gradually losing your grasp on your so-called mother tongue while juggling multiple languages?

“And instead of having [...] a verbal communication-based mother tongue, could there be different kinds of mother tongues? These are the big issues that run across my artworks. In my own way, I [explore them] through the fine arts.”

This journey of exploring the complexities of belonging, identity, and communication germinated at JIS, where, as a student still unfamiliar with the English language, she found herself struggling to express herself. This would change, however, the moment she stepped into the art studio. It was here, surrounded by the tools of the arts, that she began to realize communication could take many forms.

“All of a sudden, you’re thrown into environments where you cannot communicate as much as you would like to be able to, and then what helps — for some people it’s art, for some people it’s mathematics, for some people it is sports, music, and all other kinds of disciplines that are not language-based disciplines,” she shares. “So these are the multimodalities that showed me potential to continue to communicate at an international, universal level.”

After JIS, Yuka’s passion for art took her across continents and cemented her role as a global citizen. Her first stop was the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, where she earned a bachelor's degree with a focus on Jewelry and Light Metals. 

She then headed to the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, earning a master’s with a specialization in Jewelry and Fine Art, before completing a Ph.D in artistic research at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In her dissertation, titled “The Stubborn Life of Objects”, she investigates how “personal objects carry imagined, active, fluid, and dynamic inner forces — and how these forces can be made accessible through wearable sculptures”.

In addition to creating and exhibiting striking works of art, Yuka has also built an impactful career in academia, inspiring new generations of artists. She has led numerous international workshops and seminars, and shared her expertise as a Professor of Jewelry Art at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg in Sweden. In her current position at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Art and Design, she teaches sculpture and jewelry, focusing on the relationship between worn objects as tools of expression and how they shape a wearer’s identity.

She concedes that her dual role of artist and professor can be challenging and time-consuming, but the balance is a necessary “routine” that has provided fuel for her creative output.

“I think if I am not active as an artist, I cannot teach this field — I don’t think my students would believe in what I say,” she explains. “I want to be an artist, and I would offer my experience and view as an artist to my students.” 

In her personal life, she sees reflections of her teenage self in her 15-year-old son, who is currently engaged in an exchange program in Ireland. Just as she found herself, as a Japanese speaker, having to adapt to a new language at that age, her son is also learning to navigate a fully English-speaking world.

“He understands what I went through,” she laughs, adding that he, too, has a talent for art.

“He was asked to paint the scenery for a play. That’s also how I went into this — engaging with building props or painting. It’s interesting how this recurs.”

To JIS students and young people who hope to transform a nascent passion into a life and career in the fine arts, Yuka urges them to set aside as much phone-free time as possible — “time that’s analog, where the senses are awake; not only the hand-touching-glass kind”.

She laments the adverse impacts phones can have on young people’s overall development, including their creativity, ability to focus, and their confidence as they constantly compare themselves to others.

“Art is really about following your passion with confidence and patience. You’re also a maker — you have to create and develop your craft,” she underlines. “Most certainly, artists who are making things with their hands and materials seem to be very content. So, if you want to be an artist, try to also have space in the real, physical world.”