Through fairy tale lamps and butterflies, the presence and absence of Chiharu Shiota Tethers – Huge
In one of the basic texts of Taoism, the Chinese philosopher Zheng Zhou recalls a dream where he was a butterfly soaring in the sky without recalling his human form. However, upon waking up, he found himself firmly in trouble, which raised an important question: Is he a dream of being a Zhuang Zhou or a person who dreams of being a butterfly?
The thin line between this ancient transformation story and state of mind introduces Chiharu Shiota (formerly) dazzling new installation. The “Deformation of Consciousness” hangs on an iron-framed twin bed with twinkle lights and faint butterfly wings hanging on it, with white blankets and pillows on it. Shiota rejects a strict separation between the body and the mind, mentioning her belief in the ability of the spirit to endure after her last breath. “Every time we fall asleep, it’s a rehearsal of death, and it’s a journey beyond the body,” she said.
The artist’s interest in memory and knowledge, the example of “perversion of consciousness” is just one of the immersive works in the monumental exhibition The silent emptiness In the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing.
Given the ongoing exploration of Shiota on August 31, the show expands this inquiry into empty thoughts related to Eastern philosophy and Enlightenment this time.
The exhibition includes an antique Tibetan Buddhist gate that anchors the “Silent Portal”, an explosive device that wraps carefully carved wooden structures in dense, crisscrossing mazes of ropes. The red line is one of the artist’s favorite materials, symbolizing relationships. In this case, it is an invitation to introspection and find an awareness of the current moment.
Shiota metaphorically intertwines art, memory, and faith, literally, we bind it regardless of geography or era. Works such as “Echoes of Time” and “Memory of Roots” combine materials such as soil and large stones to show periodic time and past time, and as usual.
Born in Osaka, the artist lived in Berlin all his life. The silent emptiness Her roots are also attributed to more global experience. Shiota compared his understanding of himself to the way that salt molecules only appear as crystals after water evaporates. “In Japan, I can’t see individuals,” she said. “Although I don’t know who I am, what I want to do and what is necessary in the water, I feel like I’m a person and crystal and understand these things for the first time by coming to Germany.”
Finding another example of existence in the absence, Shuota’s migration and discovery experiences provide an important touchstone for her thinking and practice. “Absent does not mean missing, but integrates into a vaster universe, reentering the flow of time and creating new connections with everything.” (via Designboom)
