Chiharu Shiota, The Key In The Hand, 2015

Chiharu Shiota: The Key In The Hand

With her new project titled “The Key in the Hand”, artist Chiharu Shiota represents Japan at the 56th Venice Biennale, which run from 9 May till 22 November, 2015. Her newest work is based on a site-specific installation made up of over 50,000 keys which explores the notion of memory.

Image courtesy of Chiharu Shiota

Visitors to the Japan Pavilion traverse a great cloud of keys hanging from red yarn. In placing spectator’s bodies at the heart of her work, Chiharu Shiota seeks to harness the expressive power of installations, which she describes as ‘the philosophy of the instant’. Chiharu Shiota uses the key as a ‘material that conveys our feelings’ explains curator Hitoshi Nakano from the Kanagawa Arts Foundation.

Image courtesy of Chiharu Shiota

Familiar yet precious objects that guard our loved ones, our secrets and the important places in our lives, Chiharu Shiota tells us that keys are invitations ‘to open the door to unknown worlds’.
 In daily contact with human warmth, keys accumulate countless layers of memory.

Image courtesy of Chiharu Shiota

The Key in the Hand
May 9 – November 22, 2015
The Japan Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale, Venice

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