“The objects within the structure emit general human presence but are not connected to a particular person. The black thread separates us from this physical presence, but at the same time this structure allows me to create a new space. Drawing these layers of cut, tangled and knotted thread creates the entirety of the universe bound to this framed space.

I have always had the feeling that we transfer our presence and memory into the objects we own and hold dear. I have always been collecting these small objects, such as old scales, stained dolls, miniature furniture, stones, nuts, small bottles, and more.

When I bought an old suitcase at the flea market in Germany, I went home and found an old newspaper inside. I did not know this person, but I felt their presence. It fascinated me that I could feel a consciousness of a person that I have never met. Since then, I regularly visit flea markets and collect mundane objects. Recently also books, diaries, and old photographs. I wonder about these people; these are objects that have been kept by them so dearly, so close to their heart. Saved over years and years. It was their treasure and had much value to them, but now, the person is gone, and the object is discarded.”

Chiharu Shiota is known for her exploration of the intangible. Working with a variety of media her personal experiences are often the starting point, through which she questions universal issues such as identity, boundaries and existence – and thus the relationships between the body, memory, life and death.

Shiota travelled to Germany in 1996 in order to study under Marina Abramović. Early in her career she studied painting and then used her own body in performance pieces. She later turned to using thread as it allowed her to remove her physical presence from her works yet still address ideas central to her practice.
SHIOTA IN HER BERLIN STUDIO

Red and black, pastel or thread feature throughout Shiota’s work. Rich in symbolism, the colour red alludes for the artist to our connectedness to each other, the interior of the body and the complex network of neural connections in the brain. Pastel or thread are fluid, expressive and immediate materials – and respond to the emotive associations of the colour. About both colour and media the artist has said:

“Red is, of course, the colour of blood, and also in Japan there is a fable that a red string links people though time to their destiny. The legend says that a thin vein connects the heart to the pinky finger. And a red thread then connects from your pinky finger to your future lover. The red string may become tangled, postponing the meeting point, but it can never break. It’s to do with fate and about the strength of human relationships.”

Human immediacy and presence are at the core of Shiota’s works – embodied in her own words as ‘the presence in absence’. The man-made marks with which she explores this concept can be compared to the immediacy felt in ancient cave paintings, notably those in Australia, a country the artist has long had connections. In 2011 Olivier Varenne curated a show of four new works by Shiota at Detached in Hobart, Australia in association with Mona Foma which included a grand piano Shiota set fire to, and around the cooled and transformed charred unfamiliar form, she spun a vast cocoon of black thread. Shiota was also part of the exhibition The Red Queen at Mona from 2013-2014 which posed the question, ‘why do humans make art?’. Including over 100 items from Neolithic arrowheads to Egyptian scarabs, funerary art, Bactrian and Indo-Greek coins to contemporary commissions, Shiota’s work Red Line XXI contributed to the focus on evolution and creativity which wove through the exhibition.

Olivier Varenne has worked with Shiota for many years. He first discovered her work on a trip to Japan in 2007 and included her in the 3rd Moscow Biennale which he co-curated in 2009. He also worked with Shiota with on & on at La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2010-2011) which focussed on her ephemeral art.