Chiharu Shiota
The Endless Line, 2024, Rope, paper, Dimensions variable. Commissioned by PODO Museum. ⓒ SACK, Seoul, 2024 and the artist.
An infinitude of thoughts and emotions, able to exist only through text or language, become white letters of the alphabet scattered among countless lines, hanging down from the ceiling. In the center of the space sits a writing desk, its retractable top unfolding to reveal several drawers and compartments for storing letters and documents. Designed primarily for writing, this piece of furniture symbolizes the process of collecting and storing memories. When the infinite texts that make up a person’s life are broken down and deconstructed, what remains? In this space where lost stories are constantly being scattered into the threads of oblivion, the well-used desk seems to be mid-pause, a guardian of memory. Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972) is an installation artist who conveys the intangible emotions that accrete in universal memories and experiences such as birth, life, death, and memory through spaces woven through with countless threads.
