State of Being (Chair)

After studying at Seika University in Kyoto, Japan, Shiota pursued her education in Germany. Shiota’s artistic practice consists of spatial and performative installations that explore such dualities as visibility and invisibility, light and darkness, memory and loss, and reality and dream. Navigating the labyrinths of individual and collective memory, the artist’s works interconnect everyday and found objects related to the human body and memory – such as worn shoes, old suitcases, keys, pieces of clothing, furniture, and letters – within shaded spaces constructed with threads of different colours such as red, black and white. Shiota often draws on her own memories, such as the vivid recollections of a fire which she witnessed as a child, and explores the potentials of movement and interaction. Inspired by the idea of “presence in absence”, the artist deals with primal issues such as existence, personal memory, life and death.

"In State of Being (Chair)", a chair which is caught up in intricate webs of yarn hangs suspended in mid-air, appearing as if it exists somewhere between memory and oblivion within the cocoon created by the artist. Chiharu Shiota places the chair, a functional object directly related to the human body, at the very centre of the work, and constructs the piece by interweaving, knotting, stretching and loosening threads, creating a distinctive and characteristic technique reminiscent of spider webs. The black thread used by Shiota evokes our curiosity and fear of dark times, the unconscious, and invisible realms. Seemingly floating in the middle of a cloud of smoke, or amidst a downpour impairing our vision, the chair acquires a new form of existence within this occupied space. It also transforms into a mental landscape, connecting thoughts through countless threads that extend far deeper than the eye can see.