Laila Gohar Thinks Beauty Can Save Us

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Believing

Laila Gohar Thinks Beauty Can Save Us

The artist and designer discusses world building, enchantment and wonder.

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· 12:16 min

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Laila Gohar

Credit...

Amir Hamja for The New York Times

By

Lauren Jackson

I am

the host of Believing

.

April 18, 2026,

5:03 a.m. ET

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The winners in the attention economy are good at world-building. They construct alternate universes — with a recognizable voice, space and aesthetics — and invite you inside.

Think of

Hannah Neeleman’s

whimsical, if unrealistic, farm life in Utah. Or the kitchens of food influencers like

Meredith Hayden

,

Molly Baz

and

Nara Smith

. Or the interview sets for viral podcasts (

Alex Cooper’s

pink sofas,

Hasan Piker’s

bookshelf and

Theo Von’s

armchair). Each, in their own way, is a portal.

One of the most intense appeals of religion, too, has always been that it constructs a world in which people can find meaning. Religions have, for a very long time, created whole cosmologies, cathedrals and communities to help people escape, even just for a moment, their everyday.

I talked about that link — between religion and world-building — with the New York artist and designer

Laila Gohar

. She creates surreal experiences by getting creative, really creative, with food: a dangling installation of Babybel cheese, an alien landscape of egg shells, a cake shaped like Emily Ratajkowski’s butt.

I sense, though, a spirituality in her work — and a deeply intuitive capacity for world-building. (The name of her tableware company is “Gohar World.”) It’s a fluency that made me think she had a religious upbringing, one that informs her pursuit of enchantment and wonder now. Through fantastical spaces and dining experiences, she said she hopes to provide “a little bit of beauty in days dark for humanity.”

So I asked her about all of that.

The world-building of art is similar to the world-building of religion to me. Do you see it that way?

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