Obituary for Attai Chen, 1979-2023

Deutsche Version - German version      

The Bird Who Wanted to be a Cloud.

I
Once upon a time there was a woman who broke her arm. She was a goldsmith and so passionate about making jewelry she just couldn’t and wouldn’t stop. However, working with her left hand proved to be no easy task, because it was her good right hand that was no longer any use. For all that, Barbara, as she was called, was generally able to wrest something good even out of the most desperate situations in life. She decided to rise to the challenge and find ways of temporarily coping using only her left hand. The first steps are always the hardest and awkward, but Barbara was so keen to share the delight she derived from her new experiences with friends and workshop colleagues that she badgered them into taking part in a joint experiment and voluntarily forgoing the use of their good hand. So the undertaking for the right-handed participants was called Nur mit Links (Left Hand Only) and for the left-handed members Nur mit Rechts (Right Hand Only)!
 
II
One of the participants in this experiment was left-handed designer, Attai Chen. He fastened a sheet of cardboard onto his workbench, took a sharp knife in his right hand and cut an obtuse angle into the cardboard. The cardboard stood up slightly along the cutting edge, formed a sharp edge, a ridge. At precise intervals Attai Chen proceeded to make a series of cuts one after another, all virtually parallel, and observed what happened. He varied the depth of the cuts, the angle, the direction, and length. He made short, scale-like cuts, used the cutter to create straight, long radial lines resembling fans in the cardboard, but also disorderly, seemingly random cuts. Though initially stiff the cardboard now became flexible, could be bent, arched, and twisted. The cuts gaped open, the cardboard showed its wounds. In order to emphasize the difference between the outer “skin” and the notches he had added, Attai Chen applied color to the surface of the cardboard, painted and wrote on it before he let the steel glide through the cardboard creating an interplay between interior and exterior. A flat surface was transformed into a three-dimensional body and was reincarnated as undulating, intertwined, rhyth- mically structured components cut and shaped in different ways to create an endless variety of compositions. In the course of the work process Attai Chen discovered a new formal language, a new, complex vocabulary with an infinite number of possible combinations. Controlled variations, specific repetitions, deliberate expansions were constantly added. And his left hand had already long since become involved, the experiment had served its purpose, Nur mit Rechts (Right Hand Only) was over.
 
III
Munich, summer 2013. The sky is blue. Individual white cumulus clouds are gathering on the horizon. People laugh in the sunshine, fill their lungs with warm air and its heavy scents. I am also in a good mood. Down in the deepest basement of the Pinakothek der Moderne, the so-called Danner Rotunde I am missing out on the summer. Yet my mission makes this loss worthwhile. I have the pleasant task of arranging the permanent presentation of the jewelry collections of Die Neue Sammlung, The International Design Museum Munich, and the Danner Foundation. When everything is said and done, some 296 jewelry items by 139 artists from 26 countries will be showcased in 35 display cabinets. The finest of everything.
 
IV
Attai Chen also has works on show. In a narrow wall cabinet that extends from the floor to the ceiling I had two of his cardboard works mounted at eye level against a shimmering background of gray silk. During my descents into the catacombs of the museum I encounter them several times a day, at times only fleetingly, barely lingering, as there is still so much to do. However, often I do stop, take yet another close look at the two brooches. And they never cease to fascinate me. I want to write about them, only about them.
 
V
Well, I could ask Attai what his intention was with his works, and what he wanted to express, I could let him explain his work to me. There again, would that not be tantamount to mistrusting his artistic expression, his visual power? Or put differently, would it not also amount to failing to rely on my own perception, my integrity and personal experience? So instead I will endeavor to gain my insights through simply observing.

VI
The free radicals from 2011 is a brooch the size of a child’s hand. The composition consists of a rather amorphous, cloud-like core surrounded by a wreath of diverging beams. As in an explosion, feathery bundles break out of the thunder field at the centre. Flashes of lightning emerge from the smoke. Mighty forces are at work; there is seething, hissing, and crashing. You feel tempted to seek cover but cannot bear to turn away from the sight of the catastrophe because it is so beautiful. The colours are simultaneously bright and dark. Graphite, galena, steel blue, sulfurous yellow, mustard, purple, the green of beetle wings, russet, and dusky pink. The dark sharp lines of the cardboard support cut through the skin of the individual forms. The apocalyptic firework shines with a metallic gloss, a display of vain splendour. New images spring to mind. Does this display herald the phoenix brightly rising from the ashes? Are we seeing the wild contortions of courting birds of paradise? Are these shimmering feathers, a magnificent rosette or war colours? Is the world exploding into pieces or is it perhaps an imploding star?
 
VII
Forgive me father for I have sinned from 2012 hovers like a cloud (in the aforementioned showcase) above The free radicals. It is a quiet but by no means delicate work. The cuts in the dark yellow cardboard are powerful and deep. The sharp contrast between the painted white surface and the wood-coloured cardboard, which is accentuated by the black marks on the skin calls to mind the bark of a birch tree. The traces of graphite indicate that before the material was distorted it had a drawing on writing on it. If it were a crumpled piece of paper (another image that comes to mind) we could smooth it out and restore it to its original state. You might speculate further on the basis of the title, which incidentally is borrowed from Damien Hirst, but I will resist from doing so. The work speaks for itself. Only at first glance do the white colour and cloudlike shape confer a sense of peace. This is neither a cotton ball nor a falling downy feather. For all its attractiveness there is something dark and oppressive about this tangled ball, this cracked bark. It is an impenetrable agglomerate, a rampant form of growth, fascinating, alluring and threatening. I see a struggle, pain, and desperation. And from deep within a warm light emerges. This object is sad, strong, and beautiful.
January 2014
 
VIII
2023 – Attai, whenever you laughed and your eyes shone, your friendliness and cheerfulness enveloped us and made us feel warm. This is exactly how we will remember you.


>> Check here all artworks by Attai Chen pubished at Klimt02

 

About the author

Otto Künzli, born in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland, is one of the most important figures in the world of contemporary jewellery. During his long career, he has skillfully worked the relationship between jewellery and the wearer’s body, as well as the potential of jewellery as a medium of communication to build connections between individuals and societies. In the process, he has transformed jewelry into a universal metaphor for humanity and social relations. Thanks to his consistently conceptual approach, as well as the humor he expresses through his works, Künzli has gained attention and regard beyond the field of jewellery.