.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Created in 2018, Chiharu Shiota’s State of Being (Travel Guide) is a diorama of wonder. Suspended within an aluminium frame are torn pages and travel guidebooks, which float amongst a diaphanous web of white thread. The work forms part of a larger series in which objects are encased within intricate accumulations of delicate thread. The white employed in the present work represents life, which, according to the artist, ‘is pure and infinite’ (C. Shiota quoted in Y. Mun-Delsalle, ‘In Conversation With Japanese Artist Chiharu Shiota Who Uses Thread To Form Monumental Architectures’, Forbes, 24 February 2022). Shiota first began to use thread more than twenty years ago, and since then has created poignant and poetic woven labyrinths that incorporate personal totems. Each creation, notably, is site-specific, a direct response to the environment at hand.
Shiota was born in Osaka to parents who ran a company that manufactured wooden boxes for storing fish. From an early age, she abhorred the frantic energy and constant noise that the factory produced and hoped to find an alternative career. After visiting a Vincent van Gogh exhibition, she became determined to become an artist. Shiota initially studied painting but was unhappy: so much so that, during an exchange year spent in Australia, she dreamt she was trapped in a canvas. The nightmare motivated her to explore different, more physical materials, though Shiota does liken her weaving process to drawing in three dimensions. Following her celebrated installation for the Japanese pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Shiota has exhibited at the Musée Guimet, Paris, Manifesta 14, and the Palazzo Reale Milano, among others.
Shiota was born in Osaka to parents who ran a company that manufactured wooden boxes for storing fish. From an early age, she abhorred the frantic energy and constant noise that the factory produced and hoped to find an alternative career. After visiting a Vincent van Gogh exhibition, she became determined to become an artist. Shiota initially studied painting but was unhappy: so much so that, during an exchange year spent in Australia, she dreamt she was trapped in a canvas. The nightmare motivated her to explore different, more physical materials, though Shiota does liken her weaving process to drawing in three dimensions. Following her celebrated installation for the Japanese pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Shiota has exhibited at the Musée Guimet, Paris, Manifesta 14, and the Palazzo Reale Milano, among others.