Chiharu Shiota's Immersive Thread Installations at Fundació Sorigué

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota (Osaka, 1972) creates installations that are both simple and complex, immersive without technology, and futuristic yet made from natural materials like thread, stones, and found objects. In a video interview by The Creators Project, she discusses her practice during her exhibition at Fundació Sorigué in Lleida, Spain (October 2015–July 2016). Shiota, who represented Japan at the last Venice Biennale, explains that after studying painting at the Academy, she felt two dimensions were insufficient and began using thread to create three-dimensional drawings. For the Spanish site-specific installation, she incorporated stones recovered from a local construction site, embedding them within a dense web of black threads. The work evokes planets suspended in a night sky or memories nested in neural synapses, with viewers walking through as if traversing an universe or a memory system. The interview was conducted by Valentina Tanni, an art historian and curator specializing in art and technology.