Chiharu Shiota
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1972, Chiharu Shiota has been living and working in Berlin since 1997. She initially studied painting in Kyoto but, realizing that this medium had too many constraints and too much history to her taste, she turned to woven thread, making it her own paintbrush. In her work, she takes her personal experience and turns it into a universal one, by allowing the viewer to project their own story onto her work. This stands true for the work featured in the The Soul Trembles, held at the Grand Palais until March 19. Organized in conjunction with the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, this is the artist’s largest ever exhibition in France. Spanning over 20 years of Shiota’s career and featuring installations, sculptures, photos, drawings and videos of past performances, it is a perfect way to get acquainted with her work. It is also a great opportunity to visit the Grand Palais, which closed in 2021 for renovations and reopened briefly for the Olympic Games in 2024 (the renovations will be fully finished in the spring of 2025).
Uncertain Journey, 2016/2021, Shiota Chiharu : The Soul Trembles, Taiwan, 2021 / Photo Guan-Ming Lin © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2023 © Adagp, Paris, 2024
Much of Chiharu Shiota’s work is autobiographical, focusing on memory and past experiences. Many of her installations are ephemeral, meant to reflect the transient and fragile nature of the human experience. She collects everyday objects (beds, suitcases, dresses…) and uses them in her installations because she feels that they store something of their former owner’s experience. In this way, they serve as vehicles that help people project their own experience onto her art.
Shiota’s main colors are black, white and red — black symbolizes introspection; white represents new beginnings. Red symbolizes life and death, but not only. According to a Japanese myth, each baby is born with an invisible red thread tied around their little finger. This thread stays with the person throughout their life and gets entangled with other people’s threads, creating a scarlet tapestry of relationships. The red thread in the myth doesn’t necessarily refer to romantic relationships, but rather to all encounters, big and small, that influence our lives and the lives of those around us. This red thread is present in an installation that addresses her experience with ovarian cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2005.
Another work features boats tied together with red thread, symbolizing memory and the vital connections that connect all people.
You can book your ticket for the exhibition here.
Another textile exhibition running currently is at Le Musée de la Toile de Jouy, American artist Tim Hailand, prints his photos directly on toile de Jouy fabric.