Chiraru Shiota - "Destination" Solo Exhibition

Text/Photos by Chen Chi-Hsiang. Venue: Daniel Templon Gallery. Dates: May 20 to July 22. Chiraru Shiota (born 1972) is one of the most representative artists of the younger generation living in Berlin, Germany, known for his environmental spatial installations combining colorful threads and objects. He was an artist who participated in the Japanese Pavilion at the previous Venice Biennale. His most astonishing environmental spatial installation features an extraordinary boat lost in a red sea of fine threads hanging with tens of thousands of keys. This poetic and symbolic scene and imagery refer to the current international refugee situation and context, further exploring the beautiful and sorrowful aspects of life, and the mysterious path of birth and death that cannot be understood.

In this new solo exhibition in Paris, Chiraru Shiota continues to use the "boat," which can carry or capsize, as the main carrier. The theme is "Destination." A huge five-meter-long boat floats lost in a deep red sea of fine threads, not knowing where to go. A series of objects (clothes, paper, seats, models, etc.) float in box-like sculptures within red or black threads, and paintings where series of threads fill the canvas all point to profound questions about the existence of life, the world that cannot be fully seen through, and the complex relationships between people.

The artist says: "I started using boats from my solo exhibition at the Japanese Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2015: Here I wanted to create an extraordinary boat, which has become a theme I have recently focused on expressing. Boats carry people and time, always moving forward in one direction without any choice. Similarly, if we do not know where to go, we cannot dock. Life is an uncertain and mysterious journey; boats symbolize our dreams and our aspirations." (Note: From the press release for the "Destination" solo exhibition at Daniel Templon Gallery in Paris)