Shiota Chiharu
Japan
Shiota Chiharu (b. 1972) is an international artist born in Osaka, Japan and based in Berlin, Germany unravels the inner human and introspection on uncertainty through her artworks. She does not confine herself to one specific area but rather deals with a variety of media such as drawing, sculpture, installation, and performing art. She projected the trauma of death she experienced as a child into her work, and she used the finite nature of human beings and their subsequent anxious inner selves as the subject of her work. The artist also interprets death as the new beginning rather than “the end”, and further continues to reflect on the dichotomous boundaries, personal existence and identity that exist in the contemporary era. One of Chiharu’s most representative series is the installation piece with thread skein forming a shape of human blood vessels throughout the space. Through a thread that seems to be connecting each other closely by intertwining a space like a network, Chiharu visually embodied not only the agony of life and death but also the exploration for existence. Furthermore, these threads refer to the numerous interrelated thoughts and the relationships with surroundings needed to confirm one self’s identity. In essence, Chiharu continues to explore existence and inner life through works using thread, sculptures reminiscent of cells and works using everyday props.