Romantic with a heart of glass

During her second year in London, she began to find her creative footing in the world of art. She started working with two or three materials together, allowing them to influence each other, and used contrasting black and white colors to confuse the perception of weight. Through techniques such as glassblowing, casting, shattered glass, as well as incorporating other materials like black clay and ceramics, she explored the ambiguity arising from the technical versatility of glass as an artistic medium.

One of her graduation pieces, Journey, was nominated for the 2012 Stanislav Libensky Award, an international competition that recognizes outstanding glassworks by art college graduates. The piece was inspired by the sight of a lone plastic bag swirling in the air during a train ride to Edinburgh, which resonated with her as a student studying alone overseas.

"Memory is always changing and intangible, and reflects the past, but not the actual past. I try to capture this through my art," Xie says.

After graduating in 2012, she got a job at the Shenzhen Art Museum in Guangdong province, because she didn't know how to "become "an artist, and glass art was a comparatively new concept in China. During her six years at the museum, Xie spent most of her holidays taking part in glass workshops in the United States. In 2016, a public art work of hers, a large piece of stained glass titled Bridge the World, was displayed at the Shenzhen airport metro station.