
Chiharu Shiota: The Key in the Hand
Distanz 2015
Born Osaka, Japan 1972
Lives and works in Berlin
Over the course of the past three decades, Chiharu Shiota has built a stellar international career, exhibiting widely in major museums across Europe, Asia and Australia.
Chiharu Shiota is best known for intricate and large-scale installations that explore complex relationships between body and mind. She maps elusive sensations of emotion and memory by weaving tangible objects – clothing, musical instruments, furniture, letters, and even an incinerated piano – into extensive, tangled webs created with hundreds of metres of delicate thread. By capturing objects in this way, the artist creates atmospheric, otherworldly environments that inspire reflection on things past and meditation on future dreams.
Shiota has studied in several countries including at Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 1994, Kyoto Seika University, Japan in 1996, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Germany in 1999 and at Universität der Künste, Berlin in 2003.
The artist represented Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, presenting The Key in the Hand in the Japanese Pavilion, curated by Hitoshi Nakano. Exhibitions include: Seven Dresses, Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken (2015); Le Fil Rouge, Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris (2015); Inhabiting the World, Busan Biennale (2014); Progress and Hygiene, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2014); Over the Continents, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (2014); Home of Memory, La Maison Rouge, Paris (2011); Inner Voices, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2011); Walking in My Mind, Hayward Gallery, London (2009); Breath of Spirit, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2008).
Public and private collections include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Detached, Hobart; Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg, Germany; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Ömer Koc, Istanbul; Centre PasquArt, Switzerland.
Chiharu Shiota
The Crossing
2nd – 5th August 2018
Melbourne Art Fair
Chiharu Shiota
New Works
1st – 12th August 2018
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Chiharu Shiota
Absent Bodies
7th October – 17th December 2016
Anna Schwartz Gallery
Chiharu Shiota
The Home Within
6th – 23rd October 2016
Melbourne Town Hall
Chiharu Shiota
Conscious Sleep
18th March – 5th June 2016
20th Biennale of Sydney
Chiharu Shiota
The Key in the Hand
9th May – 22nd November 2015
Japan Pavilion 56th Venice Biennale
Chiharu Shiota
Belonging, 2017
bronze
10 x 24 x 30 cm
Edition of 9
Chiharu Shiota
Stay, 2016
crayon, watercolour and red thread on white paper
48 x 36 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Red, 2016
crayon, watercolour and black thread on white paper
48 x 36 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Closed Eyes, 2016
crayon, watercolour and red thread on white paper
48 x 36 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Two persons, 2016
Crayon, watercolour and red thread on white paper
48 x 36 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Bed III, 2016
crayon, watercolour and red thread on brown paper
29.5 x 42 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Boat, 2016
crayon, watercolour and black thread on brown paper
29.5 x 42 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Red Book, 2016
crayon, watercolour and black thread on brown paper
29.5 x 42 cm
Chiharu Shiota
Alone, 2016
crayon, watercolour and red thread on brown paper
29.5 x 42 cm
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