World Architecture : Artist Chiharu Shiota Fills Exhibition Rooms Of GOMA With Intricately Woven Black And Red Threads

The show has opened at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art on 18 June, 2022 and will be on view until 3 October, 2022 at the gallery in Brisbane, Australia.

The exhibition, entitled The Soul Trembles, is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date of the artist, which presents a survey of more than a hundred works from almost thirty years of Shiota’s practice since the 1990s.

Chiharu Shiota Japan b.1972. Uncertain Journey. 2016/2019. Metal frame, red wool. Dimensions variable Installation view: Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019 © Chiharu Shiota. Photo: Sunhi Mang. Photo courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.

The exhibition features seven of the artist’s intricately woven red and black thread installations, incorporating large-scale installations, sculpture, video performance, photography, drawing and set design.

"Chiharu Shiota’s compelling immersive artworks drew on deeply personal emotions and experiences to give visual form to intangible concepts such as memories, anxiety, dreams and silence," said Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines CNZM.

The exhibition is curated by Mami Kataoka, Director of Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, the exhibition encompasses the entire ground floor of GOMA and is accompanied by a free, specially commissioned project in the Children’s Art Centre.

Chiharu Shiota Japan b.1972. In Silence 2002/2022. Burnt piano, burnt chairs, Alcantara black thread Dimensions variable. Production support: Alcantara S.p.A. Installation view: ‘Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles’, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2022 © Chiharu Shiota. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA

Chiharu Shiota’s ethereal works, comprised of interlocking metal frames and woolen threads, blend its complexity with memories, dreams, anxiety and silence, embodying the intangible and complicating the imagination in an endless web.

Seven seductive installations deeply profile nearly thirty years of her practice.

Born in Osaka in 1972, Shiota enrolled at Kyoto Seika University to study painting in 1992.

After a formative year at Canberra School of Art from 1993-94 where she abandoned painting in favour of the expressive immediacy of performance and installation, Shiota then based her practice in Berlin from 1999 developing a practice of truly international reach.

The Soul Trembles exhibition "reveals the depth of a practice that channels deeply personal inspiration into works with universal themes and ambitions."

"The exhibition title refers to the inexpressible stirrings of the heart, while the countless threads of Shiota’s striking, room-filling installations allude to the complex connections that reach deep into our being."

"Shiota’s work would spark the imaginations of visitors across generations and cultural backgrounds," said Reuben Keehan, Curator of Contemporary Asian Art, QAGOMA.

"Shiota’s artistic practice is deeply personal, expressed through works with universal themes and ambitions. The exhibition title refers to the inexpressible stirrings of the heart, while the countless threads of the artist’s striking, room-filling installations allude to the complex connections that reach deep into our being," Mr Keehan added.

"Moving her hands to create a three-dimensional drawing, Shiota gradually forms a surface from the lines of thread until they completely fill the space. Like prey caught in a spider’s web, we are instantaneously fascinated and bewitched by the extraordinary worlds created," Mr Keehan continued.

Chiharu Shiota Japan b.1972. Accumulation - Searching for the Destination 2014/2022. Suitcases, motors and red rope. Dimensions variable. Installation view: ‘Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles’, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2022 © Chiharu Shiota. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA

The accompanying Children’s Art Centre exhibition, titled Chiharu Shiota: A Feeling, explores themes of inner life, including the soul, emotions, and how to express big ideas. The project includes a video in which children share their thoughts about the soul and encourages young visitors to make a drawing of how they feel and add it to a cumulative display.

The exhibition can be visited until 3 October, 2022 at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane, Australia.