Red thread, metal frame, book, photographs sculpture

80 × 45 × 45 cm. 31 1/2 × 17 3/4 × 17 3/4 in.

Signed in English abbreviation on bottom right of the reverse
PROVENANCE
Galerie Templon, Paris
Acquired directly by present important Asian collector from the above

Transforming Memories into the Eternity of Reality
Chiharu Shiota's Infinite Threads of Artistic Inspirations

“Through my work, I depict the inner struggles of people, the inexpressible emotions, and the ineffable doubts of ‘the self'… My installation art are founded on the theme of memory, or the sign and atmosphere left by a person's existence, which I termed ‘the existence of the non-existent'”.
– Chiharu Shiota.

Holding the breath while fearfully focused, trembling of the soul and the pondering of life - those are the series of cognitive reactions sparked by Shiota's work; the mutual feelings experience by her viewers in response to her art.

Born in 1972 in Japan, Shiota currently resides in Berlin. She graduated from the Institute of Art at the Kyoto Seika University and moved to Germany in 1996 to pursue her art career. In Germany, she was a pupil of renowned performance artist Marina Abramović and the famous German artists Rebecca Horn. Abramović's and Horn's meticulously nuanced and impactful artistic style and the implicitly mentally stimulating works have radically influenced Shiota, leading her to create artworks in the artforms of illustration, sculpture, installationn, performance, and recording art.

These immersive artforms express personal perspectives of the world. The themes of her creations often experiment with the hypotheses of life and death, decay and eternity, dreams and fears, self-appreciation, memories, history, and more. Such themes have resonated with many and have been highly recognized in the industry. Representing Japan in 2015, Shiota participated in the Venice Biennale as an individual participant. In 2019, her exhibition titled, “The Soul Trembles”have broken the records at the Mori Arts Centre Gallery with 660 thousand visitors, becoming the second most viewed exhibition in the history of the Gallery. “The Soul Trembles” is now exhibited in Taipei Fine Arts Museum and will be showcased at The Long Museum, Shanghai in December. Shiota's popularity is rapidly sweeping across Asia.

“I believe time is not linear, it is a concept of reincarnation.”
– Chiharu Shiota

This auctioned State of Being (Memory) conceptualizes the physically absent but ubiquitously present pieces of “memories”, epitomizing the Shiota-esque theme that is often stimulating and thought-provoking. Shiota is a collector since young, she has collected toys, dolls, photo albums, keys and more, all of which are transformed or incorporated into her artwork. Traces of her collecting habits are depicted in her works produced in 1999, which she interweaves red wool thread to build a cube frame containing old photo albums and vintage postcards. The photo album is like a family historical timeline that records the stories of the births, the growths, the marriages, the giving births, the departures, and the reunion of family members. The artist precisely utilizes the space of the hanging pictures to construct a type of flowing and romantic fluidity, as if condensing the long duration of time, capturing all of it within the frame and manifesting the moving narrative of life.

The uncountable red wool threads are interwoven on the exterior of the artwork, symbolizing the red thread in the Chinese and Japanese saying, “a marriage could be linked by a red thread despite the distance of a thousand miles”. It also represents the complicated social relationships of society, by metaphorizing the subtle bodily kinesis that are contingent on the movement of a single piece of hair, meaning that a small gesture of a seemingly insignificant organism may cause immensely penetrative changes to the whole structure.

The blood-red colour of the thread implies the vitality of life by denoting the pulse of the body. Interweaved, they organically form a net, sturdily protecting the objects encapsulated as if transforming the invisible “memories” into visually realistic “existing entity”. Through such representation, memories become eternal and silently projects radiating tensions. More interestingly, immersed in the blood-red thread, viewers are unable to clearly discern the details within the pictures. However, we are able to sense the images though through distance and uncertainty. Thus, the conflicting sentiment perfectly echoes the crux of the title State of Being (Memory), which is the “natural form of memories”. Shiota's narrative enables viewers to reflect upon the Self versus objects, inner feelings, memories, and life, further encouraging genuine cherishing of life.

Price estimate:
HKD: 350,000 - 550,000
USD: 45,000 - 70,700

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,800,000