" I have always been creating works out of my passion and love for exhibitions, and it was the only thing that I could live for. Helpless conflicts of minds, uncommunicable emotions and my inexplicable existence; these feelings give all my works form and shape. The year before last, I was diagnosed with cancer again after twelve years, but it struck me that perhaps the painful treatment along with the confrontation with death is a tribulation to create honest works. This exhibition will present works from the past twenty-five years. It is a dialogue with my unveiled, naked soul."
- Shiota Chiharu
CROSSROADS, 2019
maps, red wool
group exhibition: To make Wrong / Right / Now - Honolulu Biennial 2019
Honolulu, Hawaii
photos by Christopher Rohrer
IN SILENCE, 2019
burnt piano, burnt chairs, Alcantara black thread
solo exhibition: The Soul Trembles
Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea
photos by Sunhi Mang
Shiota Chiharu’s output is typified most obviously by her immersive installations, in which an entire space is strung with thread, usually red or black. Spectators walking through these spaces strung with thread are made aware, experientially and visually, of the intangible: invisible connections, memories, unease, dreams, and silence. Regarding the color of the thread, Shiota has said that the black can be interpreted as the night sky or cosmos, and the red as blood, or alternatively, the “red thread of fate” that in East Asian belief binds people together.
Drawing Works 2014
FROM DNA TO DNA, 1994
mixed media
graduation exhibition: Kyoto Seika University
Kyoto City Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
photo by Kayoko Matsunaga
When I was visually attracted and seized by the artist's work, I felt a strong emotion. It feels like a gust of wind suddenly knocked down your face. My emotions follow the silk thread of the work from left to right, from top to bottom, from inside to outside. Including the pain and struggle felt from these paintings is so real. With this kind of experience, let me review my work, whether it conveys the world I want to express to the outside world like a goal. ‘Not strong enough’ is my own feedback to my work.
In the artist ’s world, every element of the work has its clear positioning (here it refers to the things and feelings it expresses), such as in the interview, Chiharu Shiota said: "For me it's a symbol of the beginning and end of life..a closed circle. That's why I use the bed. "Therefore, I asked myself again what the salt and chain represent. I think I need to do more research to find my answer.
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