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Recreating a Scorched Room with Black Thread

When I first set my eyes on Japan-born, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota's work, I wasn't sure if I was looking at an installation or a dark charcoal illustration. Though the piece echoes sketch-like imagery, it is in fact an installation piece involving a burnt piano in a room ravaged by black wool. The work known as In Silence is inspired by Shiota's own traumatic memories as a child, having witnessed her neighbor's house burn down. The charred piano is a direct memory of her neighbor's grand piano blazed up in smoke.

There is a melancholic aura that hovers throughout the incinerated room filled with singed furniture. The miles of thread woven in, around, and through each item within the space adds a feeling of entrapment. The way it engulfs the room's furnishings encapsulates the destructive and overwhelming nature of flames that have possessed one's material properties.








Chiharu Shiota website
via [wicked game, nonna.khismatullina]

Pinar

Pinar Noorata is the Managing Editor at My Modern Met. She is a writer, editor, and content creator based in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her BA in Film and Media Studies from CUNY Hunter College and is an alumni of the Center for Arts Education’s Career Development Program in NYC. She has worked at major TV, film, and publishing companies as well as other independent media businesses. When she isn’t writing, editing, or creating videos herself, Pinar enjoys watching movies, reading, crafting, drawing, and volunteering at her local animal shelter.
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