Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota’s first exhibition at the London gallery centres around a new site-specific installation, along with sculpture and works on canvas.

In the titular installation, Me Somewhere Else, Shiota creates a vast net of yarn, which is suspended from the gallery ceiling and connected to the floor by a bronze cast of the artist's feet. The blood red of the yarn is laden with symbolism, from the neural pathways in the human brain to the connections that bind us together.

‘I feel that my body is connected to the universe but is my consciousness as well? When my feet touch the earth, I feel connected to the world, to the universe that is spread like a net of human connections, but if I don’t feel my body anymore where do I go? Where do I go when my body is gone? When my feet do not touch the ground anymore.’ – with Me Somewhere Else Shiota seeks to examine the idea that human consciousness could exist independently of the body, somewhere beyond – somewhere else.

Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1972, Chiharu Shiota has been living and working in Berlin since 1996. Shiota’s museum exhibitions include: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, AU (2018), Kode Art Museum, Bergen, NO (2017), Kunsthalle Rostock, DE (2017) Kunstsammlung Düsseldorf, K21, Düsseldorf, DE (2015), Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., US (2014); The Museum of Art, Kōchi, JP (2013); La Maison Rouge, Paris, FR (2011); National Museum of Art, Osaka, JP (2008); and MoMA PS1, New York, US (2003).

Shiota has represented Japan at the Venice Biennale, 2015; and was also selected for Aichi Triennale, 2010; Gwangju Biennale, 2006 and Yokohama Triennale 2001, amongst others.