Chiharu Shiota in France
In August of 2024, my friend Ariane and I visited exhibits througout Aix-en-Provence of the work of Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. This Berlin-based artist now has a larger exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris until March 19, 2025.
Seeing her exhibits were a highlight of my time in Aix. They provoked strong emotions and discussions. Here are some photos and reflections.
Musée des Tapisseries
The tunnel was like walking through a blood vessel. The craft of weaving these threads to create this tunnel was impressive! Feelings: intensity, urgency, life or death. Life depends on blood pumping through veins. It seems precarious.
Our interpretation of this piece was that it was a commentary or rejection of domestic life. So much happens at the dinner table, and so much dissociation. In dysfunctional families, each member may be floating in their heads above the table, trying to get through another family dinner that’s not addressing any of the core family issues or traumas.
It felt trippy in the heart of this blood vein tunnel so I added an effect to the photo.
Musée du Pavillon de Vendôme
Again we see house furniture wrapped up in string, which we thought was a commentary on the constraints of domestic life.
I also wonder about the houses made out of the blood vessel type weaving and thoughts of the life inside of homes—the blood, the trauma, and the human beings making an inanimate object (the house) come to life.
This exhibit made me think of Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House in which one of the main characters, would like to be her own person instead of her husband’s play thing.
NORA: I must stand on my own two feet if I'm to get to know myself and the world outside. That's why I can't stay here with you any longer.
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
HELMER: But this is disgraceful. Is this the way you neglect your most sacred duties?
NORA: What do you consider is my most sacred duty?
HELMER: Do I have to tell you that? Isn't it your duty to your husband and children?
NORA: I have another duty, just as sacred.
HELMER: You can't have. What duty do you mean?
NORA: My duty to myself.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
HELMER: I would gladly work night and day for you. Nora- bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves.
NORA: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
Chapelle de la Visitation
“At the Chapelle de la Visitation, in the monumental installation Collectiving Feelings, the artist weaves thank-you and gratitude letters collected around the world - and especially in Aix-en-Provence - into this rain of red threads. Like Ex-votos, connecting the ear and the sky, the here and the elsewhere, these letters float in a suspended space-time, bringing together all those who have put their words down on paper, in a common connection.
Although we may not share the same experience, we are able to connect through sharing emotions. All lives are filled with happiness, suffering, disappointment, and gratitude and as human beings, we can relate to each other.”
“Chiharu Shiota was born in Osaka, Japan in 1972 and has been living and working in Berlin since 1997.
Using woven yarn, the artist combines performance, body art and installations in a process that places the body at its centre. Her protean artistic approach plays with the notions of time, movement and dreams, and demands a dual engagement from the viewer, both physical and emotional.
In recent years, Chiharu Shiota has been widely exhibited around the world, including at the New Museum of Jakarta and the SCAD Museum of Art, USA (2017), the K21 Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf (2014), the Smithsonian, Washington DC (2014) and Japan’s Kochi Museum of Art (2013).
In 2015 Chiharu Shiota represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with her installation The Key in the Hand. In 2018, her work was on display at the Museum of Kyoto; and in 2019 she exhibited at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo through an exhibition illuminating the artist’s entire works.”
