Chiharu Shiota｜Born in Osaka in 1972. After graduating from Kyoto Seika University in 1996, he studied at the Brunswick University of Fine Arts in Germany and now lives in Berlin. In 2008, he held solo exhibitions all over the world and participated in major international exhibitions. In 2015, he became the representative artist of the Japan Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.

Launched at the end of June 2019, the exhibition "Shiota Chiharu: Vibrating Soul" (Soul がふるえる), which was unveiled at the Roppongi Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, has gathered nearly 120 wonderful works over the past 25 years. It has become the largest solo exhibition in his artistic career.

This solo exhibition is expected to center on 6 large-scale installation art, plus three-dimensional sculptures, video, photography, sketches of the creative process, and precious materials of stage design, presenting the "existence in absence" that Chiharu Shiota has always pursued. Let the viewer experience the meaning of life's journey, as well as the subtleties of emotion.

 

Chiharu Shiota Exhibition: Soul がふるえる

Duration: June 15, 2019 (Sat) - October 27, 2019 (Sun)

Venue: Mori Art Museum (Roppongi Hills, Mori Tower 53rd floor)

Curator: Makoto Kataoka

 

Excerpts from the works on display

Where are you going?

White wool, iron wire, rope

2019 Tokyo Mori Art Museum "Shiota Chiharu: Soul Vibration" exhibition scene

Courtesy: Galerie Templon, Paris/Brussels Photo Courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

On the 11-meter-high ceiling, 65 white boats wrapped with white yarn are suspended, just like the title of the work "Where Are We Going?" You and I lead the way, sailing together on an invisible vessel to the art land of Chiharu Shiota.

Uncertain Journey

Iron Frame, Red Wool Thread, Dimensions Variable

Full of uncertainty and a sense of loneliness and wandering, it can be said to be the representative creative language of Shioda Chiharu. Besides thousands of yarns, the symbol "boat" is probably the most common image material. The first person to show it in the exhibition "Uncertain Journey" uses black skeletons and red lines to interweave a beautiful and shocking landscape. The 280-kilometer-long red line network stretches from the ceiling to the ground, entangled in the room, and seems to involve each other in the process. Linking together, linking people to people, and linking the relationship between people and the universe, since they are integrated into one, it is better to go on an unexplained journey together.

Reflection of time and space

white dress, mirror, iron frame, Alcantara black line, 2018

Like the skin that covers the body, clothing symbolizes the boundary between inside and outside. The skirt floats in the space full of black silk threads, giving a feeling of non-existence. In addition, by hanging the skirt on both sides of the mirror, the space surrounded by the iron frame is divided into two, so that the actual skirt in the space opposite the skirt reflected in the mirror becomes a virtual image, which confuses the viewer's consciousness.

Accumulation: Finding the End

Suitcase, Motor, Red Rope, 2016

430 suitcases hung in the air tied with red threads, inspired by the suitcases she bought at a second-hand market in Berlin, and found an old newspaper hidden inside, which reminded her of the luggage that accompanies people to travel around What kind of memories are buried in the boxes, and where is the end of the life journey that you are looking for.

Inside and outside

chairs, old wooden windows

Chiharu Shiota moved to Germany in 1996 and now lives in Berlin, where he started creating works using windows around 2004, 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. At the time, the rebuilding of Berlin was underway, many buildings were being demolished, and Shioda was on foot collecting abandoned window frames. The windows exist as a boundary between the inside and outside of the private space but are also reminiscent of the wall separating East and West Germany. Inside and Outside has been in production since 2008, and the exhibition will present versions using about 230 window frames.

In Silence

Burned Piano, Burned Chair, Alcantara Black Line

In addition to digging into his own heart, Chiharu Shiota's works also come from personal life experiences. For example, "Silence" ( Jing け さ の 中で ) is based on the concept of a fire in a neighbor's house when he was 9 years old. In the space surrounded by black lines, There is a piano that has been burnt to black, and the silence is full of power, but the piano that has been burned and preserved, even if it is broken, it proves that it "exists".

 

Source: Mori Art Museum, La vie