Life is a circle that goes all the way back to the end
"I think time is not linear, but the concept of reincarnation." ── Chiharu Shiota

Countless threads are intertwined into a net, from point to surface, from the ground to the wall. Yayoi Kusama focuses on depicting the infinite polka dots, while Chiharu Shiota is weaving an infinitely extending network for life. As one of the representative artists of Japanese contemporary art, Shiota is now active on the world stage. She graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Kyoto Seika University in 1996, and moved to Germany in 1997 to continue her studies. Taught by two famous artists, body art artist Rebecca Horn and Marina Abramović, known as the pioneer of performance art, Shiota’s courage to try cross-border performances made her work quickly attract international attention. In 2015, she was selected to represent Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale, and held a solo exhibition titled “Le Fil Rouge” (The Red Line) at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Her popularity at the art fairs is even more self-evident, her future development both in the context of the academic and market is certainly worthwhile for the collectors to pay attention.

“I am always amazed by the multiple connections between daily life experience and the past and the future. How to create this unbreakable network of perceptions and its plasticity is always a mystery, just like our brain, the universe, and life. I never have the answer to all of these, I can only ask questions constantly, and these questions become the foundation of my creations.”──Chiharu Shiota

Strings and nets sieve off the light and shadow in memory

The magnificent landscape is woven through a string of thin ropes, the red, black or white threads are intertwined and run through the entire space. The poetic atmosphere is inextricably outlined, everyday household items are suspended by tens of millions of threads, sharing the memory of the artist's sympathetically touches the viewer's heart like a pouring tide with waves. Chiharu Shiota's works describe emotions, life, and even more connections with people. Although life is limited, she is convinced that even though the body is dead, the soul will live forever. After recurrence of the cancer being diagnosed 12 years ago, she holds the belief in recreating the traces and impermanence of life with thread. The red thread symbolizes that the color of blood interweaves the relationship between people, the black thread as if the night sky or the universe, intertwines into an infinite space, and the white yarn represents new life and eternity, reflecting the artist’s viewpoint of life and death, as she often lingers between. This Spring Sale 2021 Ravenel proudly presents three pieces of classic installation art by the artist in different colors, “State of Being (Dress)”, “State of Being (Newspaper)” and “State of Being (Book)”. She explores the close connection between our inner emotions and tangible objects, presents “the sense of being in absence”. Only the art that touches people's hearts and allows viewers to deeply understand her comprehension of the impermanent in life is the ultimate salvation pursued by the artist.

Currently living in Berlin, Chiharu Shiota receives endless invitation to international exhibitions even to this day. She represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2015, and her solo exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2019, the number of visitors has exceeded six hundred thousand in the end proves the influence of her works. “Chiharu Shiota Exhibition: The Soul Trembles” based on her life in Berlin, and is her largest solo exhibition to date. Known as one of the “most grand art exhibitions of 2019” in Japan, Mori Art Museum has received unrepeatable and unique reviews and unprecedented success. When Taipei Fine Arts Museum announced to expect an opening of her exhibition on May 1, which undoubtedly brings expectation and attention from all walks of life. Shiota’s ability to touch people’s heart without words has also made great achievements in auctions last year. Starting from 2020, the popularity of her works has grown in the auction market, and the trend is noticeably actively rising. Faced with the rapid changes of times and the impact of multiculturalism, the artist who has both excelled in the academic and art markets, has a high degree of personal differentiation. Both the domestic and overseas art stages have invested a great deal of attention on her, making people even more looking forward to her performance in the market in future.