Chiharu Shiota is a Japanese artist living in Berlin. She claims that the move allowed her to understand herself, no longer feeling like just one of the crowds, but a rarity among Europeans. As an international conceptual artist specializing in body-related art, she becomes part of art history–following in the footsteps of Ana Mendieta, Janine Antoni, and Rebecca Horn. Her artistic abilities span across multiple disciplines, including illustration, sculpture, performance, videography, installation art, and stage design. Shiota’s work often involves memories of everyday life. She uses common materials in poetic ways, causing her work to be both humble and majestic at the same time. Shiota encourages her audience to use their own memories and relationships to understand and reflect upon her artwork.

In 2017, I saw her Savannah commissioned installation at SCAD. In Infinity Lines, she concerned herself with the historical and personal memories acknowledged in this old city. The antique chairs contain loaded history, such as, the personal histories of their owners. strung together, creating a network of the past with the present. And that to me is the perfect definition of Savannah—a place where today’s souls meet all the others who have come before. Shiota said, “A thread to me is an analogy for feelings or human relationships”. Black threads refer to universal truths, whereas the red suggests lineage and destiny, and white represents new beginnings. Every piece of thread is necessary to the whole. She explores with yarn as a painter would explore with paint.

She considers her larger works easier to grasp emotionally. Everyone has their own legitimate interpretation of her work. In Who Am I Tomorrow? Shiota installs a functioning cardiovascular system with a heart rate of 70 beats per minute pumping 10,000 liters of “blood” around 100,000 kilometers of vessels every day. Blood represents personal information about origin, nation, family, health, and illness. In this, as in all her pieces, her personal information is relatable to all living things—showing our connection to all earthly dwellers.

As Shiota installed The Key in Hand for the 56th Venice Biennale, she thought about all the memories held by the tens of thousands of keys donated to her. And she thought about how “these overlapping memories will in turn combine with those of the people from all over the world who come to see the biennale, giving them a chance to communicate in a new way and better understand each other’s feelings.”

Her intricate work is created on the fly. She uses no models or drawings as blueprints. She says that she does her work as a meditation. Her installations take years to realize, as the ideas take a long time to incubate. Shiota does not narrate a story, nor explain her work, but creates an emotional impression allowing the audience to reflect. Shiota explains, “Sometimes words can’t describe what I would like to express. Thinking about how to communicate better, the answer was art.”

To see more of Shiota’s philosophy and biography, see Brilliant Ideas (episode 52), or go to her website here.

For more gallery information in Australia, visit the Anna Schwartz Gallery. In Seoul and Berlin see Konig Galerie and in Paris, Brussels, and New York, visit Templon.

 

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