Chantal Shen Chachiko — Bad Magazine

DOORWAYS WITHOUT DESTINATIONS
The ornate world of Chantal Shen

Sepember 19 2026 | Words by Kate Jacobs

Artist Chantal Shen (@chachiko.01) creates ornate sculptures she calls “portals.” Their looping frames recall decorative gates, while translucent centres and braided hair place them somewhere between mirrors and shrines. The name suggests that these works are not simply objects to be viewed, but thresholds through which something else might be seen.

The works’ delicacy is structural rather than purely decorative. Ornament is not added to a completed framework; repeated curls and fine lines become the framework itself.

Translucency is central to this effect. The viewer can look through the portals, but never with complete clarity. Each sculpture becomes a doorway without a destination, or a mirror that refuses to return a stable image.

This tension between structure and fragility gives Chantal’s work its distinct visual language. The portals feel intricate without becoming precious and architectural without appearing permanent. Delicate, excessive and slightly unreal, they imagine ornament as something capable of forming its own architecture.

Issue 01.