Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota (*1972 in Osaka) wraps expressive objects, a burned-out piano, for instance, in cocoons made of dark yarn. At the same time, the tradition and grace of calligraphy delicately flash through. The artist's oeuvre oscillates between Far Eastern spirituality and Western existentialism. Traces and memories of places and things are her artistic sources, as is the inexorable examination of life in the manner of Marina Abramovic or Rebecca Horn. Here, as there, truth is revealed through experience. The body becomes a medium for art. Shiota herself treads the public stage, at times sleeping in museums. Or her personal destiny finds expression in kinetic sculptures as a turn away from vivid black. In "animated" installations, red paint flows through hospital-type tubes, so that the network metaphor ranges from spider webs and interpersonal relationships to neural links and the bloodstream.