塩田千春 / Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota

Born in 1972, Osaka. Lives and works in Berlin. Confronting the fundamental human concerns, life and death, Shiota explores what life is, and what existence is, to create large-scale thread installations as well as sculpture, photography and video, expressing the existences within absences such as the memories that dwell in a location. In 2015, she represented Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. Solo exhibitions have been held at the Art Gallery of South Australia (2018), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2018),  Museum of Art, Kochi (2013), Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (2012) and National Museum of Art, Osaka (2008). She has also participated in many international exhibitions including the Oku-Noto Trinnale (2017), Biennale of Sydney (2016), Busan Biennale (2014).

Horikawa’s drawings are like diagrams that lead people into a two-dimensional world from three-dimensional objects.

Horikawa states that “my works are a process to explore what it means to understand. To know the reality of what is in front of my eyes”.

When we hear the name of an object, we instantly imagine its concept in our minds, but there is a possibility that the shape is different to the actual thing. Her drawings that question this gap between process and perception are sure to captivate people again this year. I hope that you see her further polished artwork.

(Sunao Horikawa)

Ishihara creates fluid and beautiful paintings; they show off a sense of freshness. The two-dimensional space spreads over the canvas, and the colours create Ishihara’s world.

Always committing to inspiration, Ishihara’s works present a determination to devote to paintings in this age.

The prayer in Ishihara’s words “Suppose that my painting is to be assessed in the future, that it was created a hundred years ago; it would be my greatest pleasure, if despite its age, my work never gets old and encourages people of the new generation.” are always an inspiration to me.

(Azusa Ishihara)

Hirose and Nagatani use motifs from the daily life in their work. Confectionaries, wrapping paper, postcards, receipts, bird nests, potatoes, magazines, plastic, stationaries. Their home, apartments, classrooms, housing.

They always have a connection with our daily lives. Under their statement that “the boundary between daily life and art in the contemporary context” is their theme, by creating artwork from things that were in our daily lives, our lives begin to change. The human mind is complex and liable to change; in our everyday we realise in certain moments that today is different from yesterday. They use various methods of expression in their work, however, there is a consistent direction to knowing oneself better in their world.

We feel a sense of discomfort when we see something familiar become a work of art. Perhaps people only realise that there is no such thing as eternity to anything, when the foundation of where they stand or what they see becomes unstable.

(Nana Hirose & Kazuma Nagatani)