Ominous Landscapes – Ephemeral Beauty

An interview with Carina Shoshtary following the exhibition and book “All The World’s a stage” from and about Attai Chen

Einat Leader, December 2024

My last meeting with Attai Chen took place over breakfast in Munich in March 2023. The joy of the encounter was immense, though Attai was already not feeling well. In hindsight, this meeting turned out to be the last I saw him in person. Afterwards, we kept in touch via phone messages throughout the spring, exchanging greetings for quiet and peaceful weekends. I was looking forward to seeing him again, as we did every summer—until the heartbreaking news arrived in early August 2023. Attai Chen’s sudden death was a devastating loss for the jewelry world and for me personally.

Chen was a wonderful student who over the years became a colleague and a close friend. I have always admired Attai’s extraordinary body of work, through which he masterfully explored profound questions concerning creativity, humanity, and cultural mechanisms. Attai delved into unexpected and liminal miniature formalistic spaces, pushing beyond conventional boundaries of taste and perception, operating across different times and dimensions. His creations generate a unique dialectical tension, balancing between being tangible and mythical, physical and imagined. They served as markers bridging the tangible spaces he inhabited (from the landscapes of his childhood to the locations where he resided in recent years) and the disruptive fantasies that questioned them, employing materials and colors in distinctive, varied, and intricate manners.

Since Attai completed his studies in 2006, we maintained a deep and enduring connection that grew richer over time. Our conversations traversed a vast spectrum of topics—philosophy, history, sociology, music, art, pedagogy, politics, teaching, and the very essence of creativity. Attai’s vision and art were profound and unique, and his absence leaves an immense void.

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In November 2024, as part of New York Jewelry Week, the exhibition “All the World’s a Stage” opened. It was curated by Patty Bleicher from Loupe Gallery and Carina Shoshtary, Attai Chen’s partner and great love since they met during their studies. The exhibition showcased Attai Chen’s final works and was accompanied by the launch of a book by the same name (published by Arnoldsche) and a special panel organized for the occasion. The event took place at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York;

Some elements in Attai’s work at the exhibition felt familiar—paper cutting and processing, the use of color in the cuts, the richly layered and meticulously constructed compositions. However, it seemed that the overall approach had evolved. The perspective has become more detached, as if seeking to embrace a broader, more intricate, and multifaceted understanding of the essence of the world.

Certain forms and metaphors arise from an external, real, complex, and harsh reality, blending with romantic-utopian dimensions that reflect a sense of wonder and reverence for nature. In this sense, it appears that Attai explores a duality in metaphorical language: on the one hand, a deliberate use of fragments of existing and conscious reality; and on the other, unconventional or uniquely specific metaphorical expressions that reveal a deep, layered inner reality. This dual approach seems to aim at offering a complex worldview that oscillates between grounded awareness and an almost spiritual idealism, pointing to Attai’s broader philosophical engagement with the relationship between humanity and the natural world;

The interview with Carina Shoshtary was conducted via correspondence during the first two weeks of December, continuing conversations we had in person during the exhibition’s opening days. The questions emerged from the shared sorrow we felt and from fragments of conversations with and about Attai. The answers open up new issues and reflections (and longings) to explore further.

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Einat Leader: I was deeply moved to see the exhibition you curated in memory of Attai Chen at the Pratt Institute of Design in Brooklyn, together with Patty Bleicher from the Loupe Gallery. I was particularly impressed by the selection of Attai’s works from recent years, alongside other significant pieces that you included in the exhibition. I’m curious to hear: how did you decide and select the works for the exhibition and the book? Were there any series or pieces that were considered but ultimately not included? Additionally, I’d love to know which questions you feel were answered through this process, and which ones, in your view, remain open?

Carina Shoshtary: Attai had been working on both the book and the exhibition All the World’s a Stage for years, so the framework for the series to be included was already clear. I followed his plans closely, incorporating Terra Mutantica, Matter of Perspective, Dioramas, and Prayer Nuts into both the book and the exhibition. However, I made one exception: a black sculpture from the Compounding Fraction series. This wall piece had been hanging in our cellar for years, seen only by me, a few guests, and some spiders. Patti and I felt it would be a powerful addition to the exhibition, allowing visitors and students to experience how Attai explored paper on a larger scale.

I also included the Heart, Gun, Tear triptych, which I had completed after his passing. While these pieces were part of the exhibition, they were not included in the book. I wasn’t sure if Attai intended for them to be part of it, and incorporating them would have required an additional accompanying text, which felt unresolved at the time.

This process answered many questions about Attai’s artistic journey, especially his evolving approach to materials and scale. However, it left open the personal question of how he would have chosen to frame these final, deeply symbolic works.

EL: Among these works, there were quite a few unfinished pieces that you completed based on your deep familiarity with Attai’s creative processes—both conceptually and physically. This connection, cultivated over many significant years of creating together, even though each of you worked independently, was built on collaboration, consultation, and a profound engagement with questions of form and concept. I imagine this was an emotional, undoubtedly challenging process. Could you share a bit more about your experience of it?

CS: Actually, the book doesn’t include works that I completed for Attai, and the exhibition features only the Heart, Gun, Tear triptych and two Dioramas, where I finished the brooch backs. While I completed more pieces, I ultimately decided against including additional works that weren’t finished by Attai himself.

One month after his passing, I found myself sitting at his desk at home, staring at the unfinished triptych. We had discussed these pieces in detail, and I had seen him working on them for months. The heart was perhaps 80% complete, the gun around 60%, and the tear was still in its early stages. I have little memory of finishing them—I think I was still in shock—but I do remember feeling a profound connection to him throughout the process; it felt natural and, in a way, inevitable. In my mind, our conversations about the pieces continued. I imagined him getting annoyed when I closed more of the holes in the heart, and I would respond that I had no choice since the holes revealed too much of the resin used to strengthen the piece.

Since then, I’ve continued working on the book, the exhibition, and other pieces of his because I’m searching for that connection to him. His work has become even more familiar to me through this process, so much so that I now feel somewhat disconnected from my own art. Finding my way back to it will be a new and challenging journey.

EL: Could you expand please on the Prayer Nuts series, presented in the exhibition and book for the first time? It seems to encompass a Renaissance spirit, Attai’s perceptions and ideas regarding art and the world. Could you perhaps elaborate on how you experienced Attai’s process of creating this series in its stages, both from a material-technical and philosophical perspective? And how do you perceive the exhibition and book’s attempt to preserve or convey these ideas in his absence?

CS: Prayer Nuts is the last series Attai completed in its entirety. Inspired by 16th-century boxwood miniatures, traditionally used as religious prayer beads, each piece in this series takes the form of a half-sphere that reveals intricate, miniature worlds. In the historical context, these beads were typically spheres that opened into two halves, depicting Christian religious scenes in deep relief. Attai reimagined this form using paper as his primary medium. The outer shells are cast from paper pulp, while the intricate interiors are crafted from cut paper, with occasional elements of wood, plastic, and pearls.

What struck me about the Prayer Nuts is how they synthesize all the techniques and materials Attai explored in his previous series. This virtuoso approach is also evident in his Dioramas series. For Prayer Nuts, Attai prepared sheets of paper by painting and drawing on them, much like he did for his earlier series Compounding Fractions. However, here, the fragments were smaller, requiring more precision and control to create the delicate and intricate interiors. Despite this precision, his process remained fairly intuitive. He envisioned a colour scheme and an overarching atmosphere for each piece, but the interior compositions grew organically.

The resulting interiors are deeply evocative. Some depict ominous landscapes hinting at total destruction, while others offer fleeting glimpses of ephemeral beauty. The Prayer Nuts provide a profoundly introspective experience, a contemplative journey into the inner spiritual life, marking the gradual ascent of the soul. To me, these pieces also reflect the incommensurable duality within us: our capacity to cause utter destruction alongside our ability to create divine beauty, pure love, and selfless acts.

For the exhibition, I initially planned to display the Prayer Nuts in two low antique showcases with a black background. The idea was to have them appear as though floating in darkness, like celestial bodies suspended in space. It looked promising until we closed the cases, and the reflections on the glass combined with the overall darkness obscured the intricate details.

Fortunately, we found a simple yet powerful solution: we provided penlights for the visitors. This allowed them to illuminate the interiors with a directed spotlight, revealing the details in breathtaking clarity. The experience of tracing these interiors with focused light added an intimate, meditative dimension to the viewing. Visitors relished this sense of discovery, and so did I. Each Prayer Nut revealed itself as a unique, self-contained world—complex, profound, and astonishingly detailed. They embody Attai’s exploration of the human condition, balancing darkness and light, destruction and beauty, despair and hope.

The photos in this article are from “All the World’s a Stage” exhibition, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, USA. November 2024 – January 2025. Curators: Patty Bleicher, Carina Shoshtary. Photographer: Daniel Terna

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Attai Chen was born in Jerusalem in 1979. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Jewelry from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and pursued postgraduate studies in the Schmuck class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under the guidance of Otto Künzli. He completed both programs with distinction and received several awards. Chen was one of the founders of the “Ziggurat Gallery for Contemporary Jewelry” in Jerusalem (2006-2007). He taught courses in practical and conceptual jewelry design at various academies and institutions worldwide. During his brief but remarkable career, Chen participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions globally, collaborating closely with galleries, museums, and prominent collectors. Chen received prestigious international awards, including the Herbert Hoffmann Prize for Jewelry (Munich, 2011), the Oberbayerischer Prize for Applied Arts (Munich, 2012), and the Andy Prize for Contemporary Craft (Tel Aviv, 2014).

Carina Shoshtary, born in 1979 in Germany, is a contemporary jewelry and mask artist whose work explores the intersection of nature and art. She trained as a goldsmith and furthered her education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Professor Otto Künzli, where she met Attai Chen. Her works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide and are part of public collections, including the International Design Museum in Munich, Germany; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA.

Images from “All the World’s a Stage” exhibition, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, November 2024 – January 2025. Curators: Patty Bleicher and Carina Shoshtary. Photographer: Daniel Terna