SCHMUCK ’16 | February 24 – March 1 | Events and exhibition
Carina Shoshtary’s jewellery can be characterized as emotional, imaginative and innovative. Shoshtary describes herself as a kind of modern hunter- gatherer as she finds the materials for her artworks in her immediate surroundings. Her choice of materials is often unusual: Graffiti from a heavily sprayed wall in the city, old bobbin laces found in a cellar or the plastic nets of shower sponges. All her materials have had a previous “life”, a former use and meaning. With scientific curiosity and sensitive intuition, Shoshtary reveals the potential of these materials playfully and transforms them into otherwordly jewellery pieces. Artifacts of a past civilization, fossils from another planet or the ornaments of fabled beings, the distinctive impression of Shoshtary’s pieces depict her own view of a parallel imaginary world, but leave enough space for the viewer to experience them within his/her own realm of imagination. Shoshtary’s sources of inspiration are also diverse: music, books, movies, but also everyday images, thoughts and dreams are all woven in and bundled into abstract assemblages of her daily life. Colour plays a central role in Shoshtary’s work. She examines the psychological effects of colours and color combinations and uses them to express and trigger emotions. For Shoshtary, the making of a piece is an organic intuitive process, in which the maker and the piece step into a kind of communication. Often one piece paves the way to the next.
Carina Shoshtary was born in 1979 in Augsburg, Germany, and is of German and Iranian descent. She trained as a goldsmith in Neugablonz, Germany, from 2001 to 2004 and studied art jewellery under Professor Otto Künzli at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, from 2006 to 2012, graduating in 2012 as a “Meisterschüler” (master student). She has exhibited internationally in museums including the Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt, Germany, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany, Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2013, Cheongju, Republic of Korea and the Ruthin Craft Centre, Ruthin, England. Her work is in the public collections of the Rotasa Foundation, California, USA, the Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden, and the International Design Museum, Munich, Germany. In 2012 she was awarded the Bavarian State Prize for Emerging Designers and the Upper Bavarian Prize for Applied Arts. She was a finalist for the sponsorship award of the city of Munich in 2013 and the Art Jewelry Artist Award in 2016.
More about the artist
‘Carina Chitsaz-Shoshtary was born in Augsburg, Germany, in 1979 and witnessed firsthand as a 10-year-old little girl “the most profitable used brick sale in the world’ as the Berlin wall came down.
She became aware as a little girl how much value and how many memories a piece of cement with various layers of spray-paint can accumulate. This is perhaps why she wanders around Munich where she currently lives and works searching for fragments of old walls used as canvases for graffiti. From these stones smeared with colors, which she defines as ‘remnants of modern frescoes,’ she creates one-of-a-kind pendants and brooches with a futuristic allure. Pieces that feature colors that are seemingly iridescent with a ‘fake’ glassy brightness. Jewels with a cubic silhouette where the designer’s great sculptural ability meets the force of color, which surfaces from the stone as a reminder of forgotten, replaced graffiti. Chance, spontaneity and knowing craftsmanship transform discarded materials into masterpieces with a fluorescent cyber appeal.
This young contemporary jewelry designer got started back in 2001 by enrolling in the State College for Glass and Jewellery in Neugablonz, Germany. After doing an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, she was admitted to the renowned Academy of Fine Arts of Munich in the Jewellery Department. Here she worked under professor Otto Künzli.
Since 2007, her works have been shown in Europe and New York. In 2012 she won the Bavarian State Prize for Emerging Designers.
Her collection called ‘What’s left of Krypton’ and takes inspiration from the imaginary planet and birthplace of Superman, the Marvel Comics’ superhero and reporter. When Krypton was about to be destroyed from a natural disaster, Superman took a few crystals along with him on his journey toward earth and salvation. Whether they are crystals taken from what was left of Krypton or pebbles collected during a beach vacation, these objects become memories. Objects that represent a piece of ‘home.’ Objects that hold thoughts and images like a modern USB key.
They are alien jewels in a world that is somewhere between the real and the imaginary, able to make us reflect on the strange journey objects take, inanimate objects with a lot of sentimental value, able to tell us a story, bring up emotions and especially able to unlock memories. ” Paola Aurucci, Vogue Italia. May 2014
