Date 2025 Height (cm) 21 Length (cm) 13 Depth (cm) 2 Weight (g) 300 Materials and Techniques Watercolor, thread, pastel Subject/Description I began drawing again in 2005 after my first cancer diagnosis. Up until that moment, I had stopped drawing because I thought it was only about technique, and I believed I could only convey my feelings through the thread in my installations. However, after facing this illness, I realized that my drawings could also reflect my emotions. I started drawing every day, exploring feelings I struggled to express, as it was difficult for me to find the right words. Over the past 20 years, I have experimented with different techniques and materials in my drawings to expose the depths of my mind and soul. Drawing became a deeply personal form of expression. When I draw on paper, it feels like writing in a diary. I am inspired by daily life and my experiences. My drawings have become an insight into my state of mind. Each drawing is incredibly personal, and only after transferring my emotions onto paper was I able to fully express what I was feeling.
This notebook has become a visual representation of my state of mind. In my art, the line refers to the invisible connections between people that cannot be seen with the naked eye. However, the line also carries many personal meanings in my life. It represents clarity, focus, vulnerability, fragility, and a sense of tension—symbolizing something that could easily break or be disturbed. The interrupted line also conveys energy and movement. I have used the interrupted line to express an emotion I've felt in the past, much like the tingling sensation you experience when your feet or hands fall asleep. This book is filled with my emotions, and I have poured all my energy into it.
Archival Fund AtWork Archive number 507 Bibliography Shiota’s inspiration often emerges from a personal experience or emotion which she expands into universal human concerns such as life, death and relationships. She has redefined the concept of memory and consciousness by collecting ordinary objects such as shoes, keys, beds, chairs and dresses, and engulfing them in immense thread structures. She explores this sensation of a ‘presence in the absence’ with her installations, but also presents intangible emotions in her sculptures, drawings, performance videos, photographs and canvases.
In 2008, she was awarded with ‘the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists, Japan’.
Her work has been displayed at international institutions worldwide including the Grand Palais, Paris (2024), Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka (2024), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023); Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGoMA), Brisbane (2022); ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe (2021); Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington (2020); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2019); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); Art Gallery of South Australia (2018); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2018); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2017); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2015); Smithsonian Institution Arthur M.Sackler Gallery, Washington DC (2014); the Museum of Art, Kochi (2013); and the National Museum of Art, Osaka (2008) among others. She has also participated in numerous international exhibitions such as the Aichi Triennale (2022); Oku-Noto International Art Festival (2017); Sydney Biennale (2016); Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (2009) and Yokohama Triennale (2001). In 2015, Shiota was selected to represent Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale. Personal data Osaka, 1972. Artist