Press Release


After nearly a decade's absence from the New York contemporary art scene, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is returning with Signs of Life, a new exhibition featuring a spectacular site-specific installation and a series of previously unseen sculptures and drawings.

After a foundation degree in painting at Seika University in Kyoto, Chiharu Shiota chose to pursue her artistic studies in Berlin, focusing on performance. Her practice soon shifted towards site-specific installations. She skilfully weaves knotted threads to create fantastical scenes combining salvaged window frames, a piano, suitcases, books and used clothes. Bordering on drawing and sculpture, her fabulous ephemeral, immersive installations have become her signature. Since her impressive installation for the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Bienniale in 2015, she has become one of the key figures on the international art scene and is regularly invited to show her work at museums worldwide.







































 




















 





























International exhibitions

International Archives 1st half of 2023


Chiharu Shiota, Signs of Life

Templon Gallery, New York (United States)

19.01 - 09.03.2023



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In a hyper-connected world, Chiharu Shiota’s new exhibition questions the notion of the “web”, a living organism similar to the structures that make up the universe or the neurones our brains are built on. Created on-site over two weeks, a large-scale installation made of white threads symbolises this permanent connection of information, collective memory and the world’s knowledge which cuts across cultures and continents. At the heart of the work are two arms, her own, placed on the ground. They are cast in bronze, palms facing up to the sky. “I always thought that if death took my body, I wouldn’t exist anymore,” explains the artist. “I’m now convinced that my spirit will continue to exist because there is more to me than a body. My consciousness is connected to everything around me and my art unfolds by way of people’s memory.”








Left to right :
Chiharu Shiota, A State of Being (Photo Album),
2022. Cadre en métal, album photo et fil, 120 x 80 x 45 cm
Chiharu Shiota, A State of Being (Diary), 2022. Cadre en métal, agendas et fil, 80 x 45 x 45 cm


Exhibition 19 January -09 March 2023. Templon New York, 293 Tenth Avenue - New York, NY 10001 (USA). Tel: +1 212 922 3745. Hours : Tuesday-Saturday 10 am - 6 pm








 











 





 



























 





 











The installation is followed by a series of sculptures. Enfolded at the centre of each one, as though frozen in place by the intertwined threads, are objects from daily life. “I feel that the objects we possess are like a third skin,” she says. “We accumulate these things and transpose our presence and our memory to them.” Often obsolete, weighed down by impenetrable histories, these objects -- old suitcases, stained dolls, miniature pieces of furniture and tiny bottles -- represent the treasures offered up by memory, to be seen but not touched.

Chiharu Shiota, Signs of Life, Templon Gallery, New York, United States

© ArtCatalyse International / Marika Prévosto 2023. All Rights Reserved