“How do you do something like this?” I ask in disbelief, looking at the artwork that covers the room. The artist smiles wryly and says, “I start at the top, at the ceiling, then down,” as if it were the easiest and most natural thing in the world to string together 400 meters of red thread in a large area – we measure the sad artworks in “The Unsettled Soul,” currently on display at the Kunsthalle Praha in Prague. This exhibition marks the first solo exhibition in the Czech Republic of Chiharu Shiota, a contemporary Japanese artist known for her interesting installations. Addressing basic human concerns such as life, death and relationships, Shiota explores the human condition in all different dimensions by creating life out of absence, be it through his large-scale installation of cables that combine various ordinary objects and external monuments or through his paintings, photographs, photographs and videos.
Here, Shiota captures the Kunsthalle space and transforms it into a wonderful, moving and arresting experience in four large installations that invite reflection on our lives and the invisible bonds between people and places. These works—some created especially by Kunsthalle Praha—combine the material and the spiritual, giving visitors the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and perspectives. When you walk, you feel like you’re a cog in some big supernatural machine; you have to experience it in person to enjoy the full effect.
Shiota has gained international recognition for his artworks, which combine personal history and memory collected through complex networks of threads. He was born in Osaka, Japan in 1972, and now lives and works in Berlin. In 2008, he received the Art Promotion Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and in the years since then, his work has been exhibited around the world in institutions including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2023); Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2019); Gropius Bau in Berlin (2019); the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (2018); Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the UK (2018); Shanghai Art Power Station (2017); the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC (2014); and the National Museum of Art in Osaka (2008).
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Kunsthalle Praha is a new addition to Prague’s art scene and hosts temporary art exhibitions. Great work on “The Unsettled Soul,” Crossing Paths with Destinyuses the thread as a metaphor for the delicate yet powerful connection between people, cultures and histories. The installation was inspired by Prague’s Vltava River, which Shiota encountered on his first visit to the city. He saw the river as a symbol of the passage of time, which not only connects Prague with other countries but also connects people and the stories they talk about. It reminds me of the 15th century Italian artist Paolo Uccello’s In the forest in that it evokes a strong, confusing feeling of being lost in the woods.
Another job, Heart in Your Homeexplores a theme that runs throughout Shiota’s work. After spending years living between Japan and Germany, Shiota explores the concept of home as a physical and emotional space. Red threads are woven through metal structures in the shape of houses, representing the bonds of family, culture and others. These threads, often associated with blood ties, reflect not only the artist’s personal sense of being “between” places but also the universal human longing for connection. Despite this, when you pass by the house-like buildings, the viewer feels uneasy: the red light is scary—like blood—and the similarity of the buildings, lined up one after the other, gives. robot feeling.
A room with red and white clothes that turn dangerously fast provokes more anxiety. Continuing to explore personal identity, the artist uses clothing as a symbol of the “second skin,” marking the boundary between the inner self and the outer world. Installation, titled Many factsit has seven rotating costumes and eight suspended objects, which move as if breathing, creating a wonderful, living presence in the dim light. These clothes evoke traces of human existence, including Shiota’s exploration of the physical presence of absence.
This exhibition also includes a powerful installation A Silent Concertcentered on a burnt piano—an image based on one of Shiota’s childhood memories. After seeing the neighbor’s house on fire, seeing the piano reduced to ashes left an unforgettable impression. This installation captures the haunting absence of sound and the lingering memories that linger even when physical things are lost and is in keeping with Shiota’s ongoing interest in the ways absence and loss shape our understanding of the world and is truly amazing to see up close. All in all, “The Untethered Soul” is ripe with meaning and has a powerful insight into the human condition, with all its nuances and inconsistencies. It is, I think, one not to be missed.
To complement “The Unsettled Soul,” Kunsthalle Praha will issue an illustrated exhibition catalog in February 2025, which will be distributed worldwide by the famous Berlin publishing house DCV. In addition to the exhibition’s extensive photographic documentation, uniquely designed publications are hand-bound with Japanese fukuroji binding.
“Chiharu Shiota: The Restless Soul” runs until April 18, 2025 at the Kunsthalle Praha in Prague.
