Everyday objects, mementoes and objets trouvés characterise the artist’s pictorial language and stand for the subject matter in her oeuvre—recollection, homeland, migration, death and life. The key figures in her expansive installations with wool threads are old suitcases and shoes, keys, pieces of clothing, furniture and letters, which she enthrallingly integrates into her works and performances.
In this bilingual publication, photographs, film stills, drawings, prints and objects from the artist’s archive comprehensively document the stations in Shiota’s oeuvre and illustrate her mostly site-specific, temporary installations. The book is published on the occasion of the first retrospective of the Berlin-based artist and concentrates on her creative work over the last 20 years.
About the Artist
Through performances, installations and sculptures, Chiharu Shiota examines existential human interests such as life, death and relationships. She is known today for creating large-scale installations from ordinary objects such as beds, shoes, keys, boats, dresses and chairs, often in combination with thread or organic materials such as water, fire and soil.
Her immersive installation exploring ideas of displacement, time and the entanglements of life, Departure, was specially commissioned for the opening of Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, where it was exhibited from November 11, 2018, till August 17, 2019.
About the Publisher
Based in Berlin, Germany, and established in 1945, Hatje Cantz is one of the leading publishing houses for art, photography, design and architecture books with a focus on contemporary art.
