CHIHARU SHIOTA - State of Being (Keys), 2020

CHIHARU SHIOTA

b. 1972

State of Being (Keys), 2020

metal frame, keys, and threads

20 by 20 by 20 cm.

Unique

Artwork Description

Chiharu Shiota is a Japanese performance and installation artist born in 1972 in Osaka, Japan, currently resides and works in Berlin, Germany. In Shiota's drawings, sculptures, photography, and video works, she creates an existence in the absence by utilizing a variety of common objects and external memories. She also creates large-scale thread installations that include a variety of objects and items that are relatively common in everyday life. In 1992, Shiota studied painting at the Kyoto Seika University and continued her studies at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg and Berlin University of the Arts in 1997. In 2008, Shiota received the Art Encouragement Prize from the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; she was selected to represent Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy in 2015. Shiota’s works have been exhibited in the Mori Art Museum, Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Long Museum, Shanghai.

Within the layered threads in Chiharu Shiota’s expansive works and installations, one may also find strong sentiments of the artist, whose creation is inspired by her dream and sense of self in relation to time, space, and human relationships. In the creation of art, with part or the whole of her body, Shiota liberates her soul from the physical boundaries of the reality while exercising her creativity with consciousness. In this exhibition, two unique works, State of Being (Keys) (2015) and State of Being (Keys) (2020), from her well-known State of Being series will be shown alongside her latest large-scale work on canvas, Skin (2021), a theme she has been revisiting since her work Memory of Skin (2001) presented at the inaugural Yokohama Triennale in 2001.

In an interview, Shiota once stated that the “keys” in her works carry a symbolic meaning of belonging and preservation. “After having to face the deaths of family members, the feeling of needing to ‘keep’ something pervaded my being. I linked this strong feeling to all the possible meanings that a key can have.”

塩田千春

《存在（鑰匙）》

金屬框 鑰匙 棉線

二○二○年作

關於作品

塩田千春在1972 年出生於日本大阪，是一位日本表演和裝置藝術家，目前居住和工作於德國柏林。在塩田的繪畫、雕塑、攝影和錄像作品中，她利用了各種常見的物體和「外部輔助記憶」，「在無形中創造存在」。她還創作了大型棉線裝置藝術作品，大幅運用了日常常見的各種物品。1992年，塩田在京都精華大學學習繪畫，並於1997年在漢堡美術大學和柏林藝術大學繼續深造。2008年，塩田榮膺「文部大臣賞及新人賞」藝術大獎；及後於 2015 年，她被選中代表日本參加第 56 屆威尼斯雙年展。塩田的作品曾於日本森美術館、台北市立美術館及上海龍美術館等知名美術館中亮相。

塩田千春的作品由層層交織的線主導著方向，在虛空中無窮無盡地延伸，由此觀眾在無意之中被她濃烈的情感深深包圍和影響。她的作品有部分是受到夢境所啟發，有部分則是她從時間、空間以及人與人的各種關係中追溯到自身的本質帶來的領悟。在創作過程中，塩田會局部或完全解放身體，隨心而行，恣肆而有意識地灌注她的情感於藝術之中。是次展出的兩件作品同樣名為《存在（鑰匙）》（State of Being (Keys)），分別創作於2015年及2020年，均來自她為人熟悉的《存在》（State of Being）的系列中，另外還有她於近年創作的大尺幅布面畫作《皮膚》（Skin），此作呼應了二十年前曾經於2001年首屆日本横滨三年展展出的《皮膚的記憶》（Memory of Skin）主題，揭示人的皮膚之下的種種羈絆。

在一次採訪中，塩田曾表示，她作品中的「鑰匙」帶有一種歸屬感和保存的象徵意義。「在不得不面對家人的死亡之後，需要保留某些東西的感覺瀰漫在我的身上。我便跟從這種強烈的感覺，跟鑰匙可能具有的所有可能含義聯繫起來。」