Art Basel’s ‘Meet the artists’ series presents contemporary creatives shaping today’s cultural landscape. Chiharu Shiota’s installations are a call to reflect on the complexity and connection of human relationships. Wool thread is the primary medium of the Japanese artist, although she often incorporates familiar objects such as shoes, photographs, beds, or rowboats. Entwining the wool on a magnificent scale, her works are sprawling installations that envelop the viewer.

In this episode of ‘Meet the artists’, Nowness visits the Shiota in her Berlin studio. There, she shares the moving story of how a cancer diagnosis came just one day after learning she would have her biggest show to date at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum. She also reflects on the symbolic power of string as a metaphor for the passage of time and interconnectedness.

‘My string is visible, but I can see that we are connected with invisible lines,’ she says in the film. ‘Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles’ is currently on view at Museum MACAN through April 30, 2023.
The exhibition is organized by Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and curated by Mami Kataoka.

Director: Gerrit Piechowski and Marcus Werner
Director of Photography: Gerrit Piechowski and Marcus Werner
Gaffer: Hannes Greve
Editor: Gerrit Piechowski
Music: David Edren and H. Takahashi
16mm Lab: Cinegrell Berlin