ART-PRESENTATION: Chiharu Shiota-Direction
The starting points for the majority of Chiharu Shiota’s installations are collections of used everyday objects that act as expressions of human acts. Complex networks of yarn are interlaced around and between the objects, linking their inherent narratives and creating a new visual plane, as if painting in mid-air, to explore the relationship between living and dying and to access memories found within these objects.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes Archive
In Chiharu Shiota’s ”Direction” at KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes, the artist incorporated in the installation old boats from Western Norway. These boats were once an everyday means of transportation along the coast outside of Bergen, and the title incorporates a reference to the act of travelling. Her complex thread constructions have been compared with “drawing in the air”, and frequently include everyday objects. For her complex networks of yarn around and between the objects the artist says ”The weaving process is a way of conveying existence in the absence. I would say it is the other way round. By creating webs, I tend to wrap individual memories and shine a light on human relationships”. For the use of boats in her installations “I have been using boats since my exhibition at the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015… Ships carry people and time. They feature a defined direction, with no other choice but to keep moving forward”. At the same time Shiota touches upon navigating in a broader perspective: “I’ve been concentrating on the distance we cover in our lives, and the journey we take that has an unclear destination. We are heading in a certain direction but don’t know exactly where”, says the artist. Shiota has also employed photography and video in several of her installations. Her installation in Bergen is accompanied by selected drawings, sculpture, photography and film.
Info: KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes, KODE 2, Rasmus Meyers allé 3, Bergen, Duration: 27/10/17-1/4/18, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-17:00, http://kodebergen.no
