Chiharu Shiota

In her work, Chiharu Shiota repeatedly explores the theme of “presence in absence.”

At the age of nine, Shiota’s neighbor’s house caught fire one night. The fierce blaze, with the violent crackling of burning wood, created an unspeakable sense of dread. The next morning, she saw a charred piano in a corner of the neighbor’s home. Although it could no longer produce sound, its music left an indelible impression in her mind.

Shiota’s art heavily features thread. She has said that she decided to become an artist at age 12 and has never considered another career. However, while studying at university, she hit a wall with her painting, finding that two-dimensional work couldn’t express her true ideas. This led her to shift her focus to three-dimensional creations.

Her early two-dimensional paintings often started with black lines on white paper, which is why Shiota initially used black thread for her three-dimensional works. She felt it was like drawing with a black pen in space.

The use of red thread can be traced back to her installation, “The Key in the Hand,” at the Venice Biennale. For this piece, she used a large quantity of red thread to connect old keys from all over the world. “The shape of a key resembles the human body, and in both Japanese and Taiwanese cultures, it’s said that a red thread connects people. Additionally, human blood is red, so the color is very symbolic.”

She uses white to represent purity, a blank slate, and new beginnings. “However, in Japan, white chrysanthemums and white mourning clothes are often seen at funerals, so white also symbolizes an end.” To Shiota, white embodies both life and death, the beginning and the end.