The entry of World War II journal floats in a network of blood-red yarns in Chiharu Shiota’s “Diary” – Huge
Berlin artist Chiharu Shiota, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, presents a poignant and large-scale work Two home countries in the Japan Association Gallery. That artist is known for her immersive string facilities, inviting us to emotional, atmospheric experiences that can be incorporated into both a universal and profound personal narrative.
exist Two home countriesthe audience enters a vivid world, shapes of red lines, intertwined veins and blood vessels fixed to the floor, occupying the shape of the house and spreading throughout the room, with a red halo with clouds – filling the written page. The gallery says the themes of memory, mortality, connection, identity and belonging are weaved through Shiota’s work to explore how “pain, displacement, boundaries and uncertainties in existence affect the human condition and our understanding of the self”.
A typical roommate work titled “Diary” which is based on an earlier installation and re-commissioned Two motherlands, Combined with a dense yarn net, which once belonged to the floating pages of journals of Japanese soldiers. In the post-war era, some people were also written by German civilians. “The accumulated pages reveal a vast record of shared existence across the country,” the gallery said.
“When the bodies disappear, the objects surrounding them stay behind,” Shiota said in a statement. “When I wandered around the stalls in the Berlin market, I discovered special personal items such as photos, old passports and personal diaries. Once, I discovered the 1946 diary, which is an in-depth understanding of people’s lives and experiences.” For Shiota, the power of these objects was revealed in her sense of the writer’s “inner self.”
Two home countries On display in New York City as of January 11. Plan your visit on the Japan Association website and find more information on Shiota’s website and Instagram.
