From CI Mag Magazine
Chiharu Shiota’s installation, “The Key in the Hand,” is the talk of the art world. She made the work for the Japan Pavillion at the 56th Venice Biennale this year. We spoke to the artist about her process, about memory, and about her installation in Venice
How does, say, the traditional past, or the past you inherit or learn from childhood affect your art and your creation as a contemporary Japanese artist?
The theme of my work is memory and the existence in the absence. Memory itself is something that exists but cannot touch. In my video work I am asking children between two and four years old about their first memory. The older ones forget their first memory when they begin to speak properly, but the younger ones can still remember their own birth.
The past is always there but humans forget in their everyday life.
As for myself, I have also forgotten many of my childhood memories so everything mentioned above relates to me.
You are both an installation and performance artist. How do you combine these two? Or do you combine these two?
I mainly focus on installation but I also do performance with paintings, videos, objects…
The core is always memory and the medium to the rest of my work such as performance. From then on I can combine both things.
In your work in Venice, you use everyday objects that you receive from others. That means you create your work with the feelings that society gives you… can we say that? Does your work carry the traces that others leave on it?
Yes, exactly. When I received the keys, many carried messages explaining what the keys meant to that person. This fact helped influence my work because every object, in this case the keys, contained a personal feeling connected to memory.
How long does it take to move from an idea to an installation?
It usually takes a year and a half to move from an idea to an installation. Creating the space for the installation takes two and a half months approximately.
Your work includes design, installation, poetic approach, memories… these all come with a long and demanding process. How do you work? Do you start with an idea or with a vision of installation on your mind?
I picture it in my head as a whole but I am not drawing anything because I fear I would lose that emotion if I do, so I just bare it in mind.