Chiharu Shiota / Eye to Eye

Museum Haus Konstruktiv’s solo exhibition on Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972 in Osaka, lives and works in Berlin) is the first to be dedicated to this internationally acclaimed Japanese artist in German-speaking Switzerland. Alongside recent works on paper and sculptural objects, the room-filling thread installation Eye to Eye, specially created for this Zurich exhibition, will be on display.

The tying and interweaving of mostly red, black or white threads has occupied Shiota since the beginning of her artistic oeuvre. Driven and fascinated by existential themes such as fear, death and love, along with their subjective narratives, Shiota describes the interwoven threads as symbols of complex interpersonal connections. Thus, her net-like structures, which she herself also sees as three-dimensional drawings, become metaphors for all kinds of relationships. It is not uncommon for her to incorporate objects associated with individual conceptual spaces or personal stories, bringing fundamental themes of human existence into focus.

With sculptural objects that she calls Cells, Shiota refers to the theme of transience, whereby this artist sees death not as an end point, but as a metamorphosis that leads to an altered state.

Shiota, who studied painting at Kyoto Seika University, describes the creation of her room-filling installations as an act of liberation from the confines of paper and canvas. After study trips to Canberra, Hamburg, Braunschweig and Berlin, she expanded her artistic oeuvre to include sculptural objects, performances, and stage design for theater and opera – and has since come full circle by turning to painting once again. Her latest works on paper, entitled Connected to the Universe, accompany this return.

Shiota’s oeuvre has received international attention, particularly since the 56th Biennale di Venezia in 2015, where she produced the piece The Key in the Hand for the Japanese pavilion. Her artwork is regularly shown in group and solo exhibitions around the world.


Curated by Sabine Schaschl